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 said that while there had been some public fallout from his comments on radio after the game, there was little friction within the club.

But he said he had learnt an important lesson.

"I certainly wouldn't individualise," Harvey said on Thursday.

"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."

North and Richmond will clash at Etihad Stadium 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."

Richmond captain Chris Newman admitted that a sense of desperation was creeping in at Punt Road as each week goes by without a victory, even though the Tigers 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 said the side had been hurt in recent weeks by the suspensions of key defenders Alex Rance and Luke McGuane although Dylan Grimes had 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.

"They know they letthe team down and all they have to do now is learn from it," he said.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP