Coach David Noble has put his North Melbourne charges on notice after a thumping AFL loss to Brisbane but says wholesale changes aren't necessarily the answer as he seeks a response against Sydney.
Noble lashed his players in the wake of Saturday's 108-point rout at the Gabba and doubled down on Wednesday morning, saying the club had addressed the manner of the capitulation.
"It's the mentality about how you go in those games when the chips are down," he said.
"There needs to be consequences and understanding how we need to rectify that, so there's some learnings from there.
"Obviously we need to get some things right on the training track so there's consequences there.
"Guys' positions become vulnerable when you put performances on the board like that
"We haven't got significantly strong performance underneath at the moment but that doesn't mean that we can't make change."
The Kangaroos will welcome back Luke Davies-Uniacke from COVID-19 protocols while Noble noted there were five or six players "in the mix" to face Sydney, despite the VFL team also copping a thumping.
But he was also keen to give players a chance to redeem themselves on the track, noting the Kangaroos clearly needed to lift their training standards.
"You've also got to give those guys that were in that game an opportunity to respond so there's an element of we'll back those guys in to deliver a better outcome this week." he said.
"I don't think it's as easy as all of a sudden you just drop five or six."
Noble said his experiences at Brisbane, who went from cellar dwellars to contenders, helped give some perspective as to where his young charges were at, but noted effort and competitiveness was a non-negotiable.
"We're going to have some bumps, we know that, we would expect a response this week," he said.
"We know what we're capable of delivering and it certainly wasn't anywhere near where it was on the weekend."
Noble believed facing the hard-nosed Swans on Saturday was the perfect test of North's response.
"They pride themselves on that contested possession, their one-on-one battles, they're always really strong at," he said.
"We couldn't ask for a better challenge this week really, could we, coming out of last week?"
