North Melbourne star Brent Harvey says he has no excuses for his quiet start to the AFL season and believes his new status as club captain is not a factor.

Harvey, who has been the Kangaroos' best and fairest player four times, including the past two seasons, has had little impact in either of the opening two rounds.

But the 30-year-old said the youngsters who tagged him in each game - Melbourne's Clint Bartram and Western Bulldogs' first-gamer Liam Picken - deserved much of the credit.

"A couple of young guys played me pretty tight and they probably haven't really worried about getting the ball themselves and played a pretty defensive role," Harvey said on Tuesday.

"But that's their role so good on them; they've beaten me over the first two weeks.

"I'm looking forward to this week (against Hawthorn), a bit of a challenge now.

"I had a quick look at the stats from last year and the first two games were pretty similar. I got off to a slow start last year.

"So hopefully there's something in that and come round three I'm back."

Harvey dismissed speculation that the extra responsibility of captaincy had affected him.

He said after his sub-par performance in round one, he deliberately cut out any extra duties in the lead-up to round two to make sure that was not the cause.

"Throughout the whole week there was no extra meetings that I had, purely because I didn't play well the first week and I had a couple of things, but last week I made sure my preparation was mine," he said.

Meanwhile, he felt "stiff" to have been penalised for a throw at a crucial stage late in Sunday's match against the Bulldogs.

The `Roos had closed to within two points after trailing all game and were about to head into attack again when the whistle blew.

The `Dogs sent the ball forward and goaled, then at the resultant centre bounce won another free kick, which led to another goal, which sealed the game.

"I certainly didn't mean to throw it ... I thought I made contact with the ball and was pretty stiff, but that's the decision," Harvey said.

He said it was the "turning point" in the game.

"(We) probably would have put the ball inside 50, we kick the goal we'd be (four) points up with 10 minutes to go," he said.

"With the lead in the rain, we probably would have got the win."

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