North Melbourne captain Brent Harvey stands by his public criticism of the team following their round two loss to Collingwood.
However, he says naming two of the players he believed were down on form - Lachie Hansen and Sam Wright - was wrong.
Harvey says that while there had been some public fall-out from his comments on ABC radio after the match, there is little friction within the club.
But he says he has learnt an important lesson.
"I certainly wouldn't individualise," Harvey said.
"I won't shy away from what I said, though, because that's what I felt and I still feel that now.
"For us to go anywhere we need our young guys to really stand up. I'm not too fussed about what other people think outside our football club."
The Kangaroos and Richmond will clash at Docklands on Sunday with both clubs chasing their first win of the season.
"It's been a tough month," Harvey said.
"Going to Perth twice and playing Collingwood has been pretty tough but we get an opportunity in a couple of days to rectify that."
Tigers captain Chris Newman admits that a sense of desperation is creeping in at Punt Road as each week goes by without a victory, even though his side managed a draw with St Kilda in round two.
"Every week you lose you become more urgent to win a game," Newman said.
"We're desperate to win a game.
"We've been in a couple of games and in some winning positions where we haven't finished off, but we feel like we've played some quality opposition and our game plan has held up for the most part."
Newman says the Tigers had been hurt in recent weeks by the suspensions of key defenders Alex Rance and Luke McGuane, although Dylan Grimes has performed well in the backline.
"We told them both that we were all disappointed in their actions," Newman said.
"They're the bigger bodies and they're the ones that we rely on to try and stop those goals that are deeper inside 50."
- AAP
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