The Roos let a golden opportunity slip to move within a win of the top-four against the Blues and are now in a scrap just to finish in the eight.

 

It’s possible, but unlikely, North will drop out of the eight after round 18 is complete.

 

A relatively soft run home should see North return to finals football, but the wider concern is the Roos’ form against teams around or below them on the ladder.

 

In North’s seven losses, it has gone down to the Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast, Essendon, Collingwood and now Carlton – all teams below the Roos on the ladder.

 

On the flip side, the Kangas’ best footy has been too good for flag contenders Hawthorn, Fremantle, Port Adelaide and the Sydney Swans.

 

North – and its supporters – have been left frustrated and searching for answers.

 

“The best teams do it because they know what they’re going to get from their guys week-in, week-out,” Swallow told AFL.com.au.

 

“We’re not there at the moment, we’re probably about 75 or 80 per cent of where we want to get to.

 

“We’ve been talking about it and trying to address it for the majority of the year. I thought after the Brisbane game we might have fixed a few things, but obviously we didn’t.

 

“It’s a good chance now to have the weekend off to get away and reflect.

 

“We’ve got five weeks now to set the rest of the year up. Who knows where we’ll finish, it will depend on how we go in the last five.”

 

Although Carlton outplayed the Roos at Etihad Stadium, Swallow could see positives with North only being three points down at three-quarter time.

 

“It does (sting). We didn’t play well, but we were still in the game at three-quarter time, which was encouraging,” Swallow said.

 

“We had our opportunities, but we fumbled too much. I thought our ball-use was poor going forward and they really capitalised on our turnovers.

 

“The other thing was we probably sat back too much and let them take too many uncontested marks.

 

“We didn’t intend to play that way … which is disappointing.

 

“You’ve always got to give the opposition credit because they did come out and I thought they really took it up to us.

 

“It’s probably one that we let get away.”

 

North has the week off before facing Geelong back at Etihad Stadium, with Swallow one of the sore Roos looking forward to a break.

 

“The body’s OK, it will be good to have the week off. I feel like I’m getting better every week with the running, especially with the Achilles, there’s a couple of other little niggles that you pick up along the way so it will be good to give that a break,” Swallow said.

 

“We’re in a reasonable position and we’ll have to wait and see how we go in the last games.”