NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott is confident Daniel Wells will remain a Kangaroo beyond 2010.

Wells, who is out of contract at the end of this season, has recently been linked to the Gold Coast Suns.

Scott said he would prefer Wells' contract confirmed before the season's end but was content with the midfielder taking his time to sign.

"I'm not concerned about Wellsy's future," Scott said on Thursday. "I've had a good discussion with him and he's feeling terrific about his footy.

"He wouldn't like to have a quad injury at the moment but other than that he is feeling very settled and is really enjoying his football at North Melbourne.

"My focus is on creating a super environment for our players and if I succeed in doing that then I couldn't imagine any player wanting to leave.

“He’ll come to a decision in his own time. We’re not going to force his hand in any way. I’m really confident he’s happy and we’re really desperate to keep him.”

Scott conceded it would be best if negotiations with the 25-year-old were resolved sooner rather than later.

“I wish he’d signed a five-year deal at the start of the year,” he said. “That’s the way things go. There are plenty of players out of contract across the competition.

“The fact is, he’s still contracted for the five remaining games plus finals.

“He’ll sign his contract when he’s ready.”

Wells, Scott McMahon (knee), Daniel Pratt (hamstring) and Lindsay Thomas (knee) will all have fitness tests on Thursday afternoon to see if they will be right to face the Western Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon.

Rookie Marcus White will be elevated to the senior list and will be named in the squad of 25.

Scott said Wells would not be risked given the potential severity of quad injuries.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to assess him last week given it happened about three minutes before the game,” he said.

“If there’s any doubt, we won’t play him. He feels really good now but the problem with quads is you often injure them when you’re kicking full distance.

“It’s very difficult to test for that because you don’t want him to kick full distance in a fitness test and tear it again. We’ll err on the side of caution with him.”

Scott said the Roos were looking to atone for their disappointing loss to Essendon last weekend and were still focused on doing enough to play into September.

He also said the comments the Bulldogs made after the spiteful Scott Thompson-Barry Hall clash that saw the pair reported twice each would not be used as motivation for his side.

“What we produced on Saturday night was pretty disappointing given the high standards the players have set for themselves,” he said. “We’ve still got a fair bit of work to do to prove ourselves worthy of competing in September.

“We can’t control what other people say about us. We’re really focused on what we need to do and playing the footy we think is going to be successful.

“What other people say about us is irrelevant. You can bring all these things up and you can try and create a bit of bad blood but in my experience, that lasts about the first five minutes and then you play the rest of the game.

“If we’re going to rely on a bit of emotion and bad blood to improve our performance, we’re clutching at straws.”

Dogs’ coach Rodney Eade had suggested the Roos took cheap off-the-ball shots at his players during the round nine clash.

Channel 10 now reporting West Coast are interested in Wells - possibly for pick 4.

Its tempting

so i believe thats a no, groper?

by the way thats a pretty awful list of supposedly top pick players...

Personally I think what happens every other year will happen this year again. The rumours of him being linked to WCE will come up in trade week but once again nothing will happen.