Midfielder Daniel Harris has retained his senior berth in the midst of a massive buildup at North Melbourne for Saturday night's AFL match against Port Adelaide.

Captain Adam Simpson said some players "have definitely been put on notice" after the deflating 15-point loss to St Kilda two weekends ago.

In their last three matches, the Kangaroos have gone down badly to Fremantle, staged a massive upset against Hawthorn and then faded dramatically in the last quarter against the Saints.

They are now half a game outside the top eight in 10th and must beat Port Adelaide this Saturday night at AAMI Stadium.

There was some speculation Harris might be a casualty after the Saints loss, but he revealed Tuesday that his spot was safe for at least this week.

"I suppose we probably deserved it, but it's how you respond the next week that's really important," Harris said of Laidley's post-match criticisms of the midfield.

"The last quarter against St Kilda wasn't acceptable.

"I'm in the team this week and I will give it another crack.

"I had a meeting with him and he said I'm going to play this week."

Simpson said the Kangaroos must eliminate their inconsistency and this had been a focus in the week off.

"St Kilda really picked up their play in the second half and we have some players who are inconsistent, across the board, across weeks, games, quarters," Simpson said.

"We just don't have that same consistency that we perhaps had last year, so we've done a few things differently around the club this week and last week.

"Hopefully you'll see a change in the next eight weeks.

"It's a hard thing to get consistency, it's probably the hardest thing in the AFL, but time will tell - some guys have definitely been put on notice with that."

North would love to repeat the reaction to their loss to Adelaide in round 12 last year - like the St Kilda game, that game was on the Gold Coast and came immediately before the split-round break.

On the other side of the week off, the Kangaroos won their next five matches.

"It was disappointing, the same thing happened last year, we lost on the Gold Coast against Adelaide," Simpson said.

"So it certainly wasn't party time after the game, I can tell you that.

"After the Hawthorn win, the boys were up and about and it's really disappointing how we finished off that game.

"There was a bit of soul-searching, but this week we've been full-steam ahead ... it's a pretty big game for us."

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