North Melbourne have lost patience with under-performing full-forward David Hale ahead of Friday night's clash with Carlton.

Hale, who had just two kicks and was held goalless in last week's loss to Brisbane, has been sent back to the reserves.

The Kangaroos, yet to win a game under caretaker coach Darren Crocker, are set to again struggle in attack against the Blues, who are out to bolster their place in the eight with a win at Etihad Stadium.

Crocker said Hale's inability to fire was not entirely his own fault.

"When I first took over he had a couple of strong games but didn't get the reward," Crocker said.

"I think he kicked four points against Sydney after taking 10 marks but last week he had a poor game and we just want him to go back and recapture a little bit of form in the VFL.

"I suppose one reason is the team's performance. We haven't performed as well as a team, we haven't got the ball inside our forward 50 and given him as many opportunities.

"And I don't think the forward line as a whole has functioned as well and that could be a contributing factor as to why his form's been inconsistent throughout this year."

The Kangaroos have also dropped Ben Ross and brought in Daniel Pratt and Nathan Grima.

Former skipper Adam Simpson will be playing his last game for the Roos on Friday night and Crocker said he was contemplating several younger players who could potentially fill the gap left by the retirement of one of the club's alltime greats.

"In regards to a midfield role, Liam Anthony - hopefully he can continue on his strong form and fill the breach," he said.

"Levi Greenwood has been really good in the last couple of games. He's come in and played on (Brisbane's) Daniel Rich last week and we were pleased with his job there

"Andrew Swallow, there's going to be a fair bit of responsibility fall onto him."

Blues coach Brett Ratten acknowledged that North was likely to be spurred on to give Simpson a positive send-off.

"He could have picked another game, there's a few more left in the season, but that's the way it goes," Ratten said.

While it is an important game for the Blues, Ratten said it was not necessarily more vital than any other of the remaining rounds.

"You hear `this is the make or break game' or `if you lose this you're doomed' but I just think this is one of five games for the rest of the season.

"We've got five weeks of opportunity to put our case forward to see if we deserve to be in the top eight or the bottom eight," he said.

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