North Melbourne is confident it can hold up against St Kilda's defensive tactics in Saturday night's mini-elimination final on the Gold Coast.

While Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley was keen to downplay the importance of the game on Wednesday - in a match pitting eighth against ninth with just half a game separating the two teams - he is preparing for another slog against a team that relies far more on defence than attack to win games.

The Saints beat Fremantle last week despite kicking just 10 goals for the game and just one in the last quarter. They will move into eighth spot if they can down the Roos at Carrara on Saturday night.

Laidley says he is expecting the Saints to again try to clog up space and flood the Roos' forward line with extra defenders on Saturday night.

"They tend to play that way, they press up the ground a fair bit," he said on Wednesday.

"But the Hawks play that way and we played well against the Hawks last week."

"So we have to make sure we win our fair share of the footy and put the pressure on them."

North Melbourne's shock win over the second-placed Hawks last week has made it the favourite to clinch the eighth and last place on offer for the finals with the top seven sides appearing safe.

But with not only St Kilda but also Carlton and Richmond - who also clash this Saturday - right behind them, Laidley knows there is no room for error for his side in the run home.

However, regardless of the result of Saturday night's game against the Saints he expects there will be plenty of twists and turns to come in the enthralling four-way battle for eighth spot.

"People were writing three weeks ago that the final eight was done and dusted but this game throws up all sorts of things and changes each week so I wouldn't have thought so."

"But I don't think we can get caught up in that (worrying about holding onto eighth spot) because if we worry about winning or losing and don't worry about doing what we are supposed to do then we can get our pants pulled down."