North Melbourne hope Aaron Edwards can add some spark to their misfiring attack in Saturday night's AFL match against Richmond at Etihad Stadium.

Edwards finally returns to the side after missing the NAB Cup and the opening four games of the regular season through a club suspension.

North have the league's second-least productive attack so far this season as they try to cope without retired duo Nathan Thompson and Shannon Grant.

"We've missed Aaron, there's no doubt about that, and Drew (Petrie) and Haley (David Hale) probably haven't been in their best form, we probably saw a little bit of it last week," Laidley said.

"The stuff that he (Edwards) has done with his training has been first class.

"It's been pretty tiring mentally and physically for him.

"It's been a long time, nine or 10 weeks, but he's done really well."

While the `Roos welcome back Edwards after his suspension for a drink-driving incident, Daniel Harris continues to be unable to break back into the senior side.

The midfielder is an emergency again for Saturday night's game, but Laidley says Harris is not far from a senior recall.

"He just needs to keep working on his game and when he gets his opportunity, make sure he's ready to perform," Laidley said.

The Kangaroos also promoted Levi Greenwood for his senior debut, while leaving out Matt Campbell and Josh Smith.

Meanwhile, Laidley has moved to scotch speculation about his coaching future.

He is among seven senior coaches out of contract this year and there are rumours linking him to Fremantle.

"I've made my intentions clear that I want to coach the footy club and if that's not the case I still want to coach somewhere else," he said.

"Now no-one's got anything to talk about so it's good from my perspective that everyone knows."

Laidley has added he is paying no heed to the problems at Richmond, who are 0-4 and dealing with speculation about the future of coach Terry Wallace.

The Kangaroos have had their own troubles, notably the now-infamous rubber rooster simulated-sex video episode.

They scored a badly-needed win over the Bombers last Sunday as they try to put the video saga behind them.

"To be honest, with what's been going on in our footy club, I haven't given (Richmond) too much thought," Laidley said.

"We've put a lot of time and effort into our boys and the way we want to play and attack the game and I think if we can do that and really concentrate on the basics, winning the footy, we'll give ourselves every opportunity."

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