NORTH Melbourne coach Dean Laidley said he was devastated by the lack of intensity from his players against Hawthorn, and believed the tumultuous week off-field could have affected their mindset.

The Kangaroos had few contributors in their 54-point loss to the Hawks and were overrun by last year's premiers.

A shattered Laidley said he wasn't sure what affect the chickengate scandal had on his players.

"I don't know. You'd have to ask them that," he said, after the game.

"I only see how they train. I counsel during the week. They trained really well and the spirit within the football club … they were upbeat all week.

"We went about our business the way we usually do but there was pretty heavy criticism on particularly a couple of boys, and it's going to take a toll.

"As to what extent, I'm not too sure. I'm not a psychologist, even though I try to be."

Laidley spoke of the difficult week the club endured, which began when defender Josh Gibson - who was one of the side's shining lights on Sunday - was forced to face some home truths.

"I spent a hell of a lot of time with Daniel [Pratt] and Adam [Simpson]," he said.

"Earlier in the week before that, Josh Gibson's last three weeks have been absolutely putrid to the point where he was out of the side.

"I got him into my office during the week and we had a good chat and he was very, very, very emotional and very distraught.

"My first two days of the week were taken up with Josh Gibson. We've really moved him forward and to come and do what he did today I thought was a mark of his character.

"Then we had World War III break out and were trying to put our fingers in the dyke all week.

"So if that has an effect, I don't know. How do you measure it? It's hard to measure."

While Laidley praised the effort of the side's young defenders as a whole, he was clearly disappointed with the Kangaroos' lack of drive and inaccurate kicking.

"It probably comes down to work rate. They just worked much, much, much harder than us," he said.

"We couldn't hit the side of a barn. Some of our kicking was appalling. We have to work on that."

Laidley refused to name individual players he felt had let the side down, but said he was becoming exasperated with "quite a few".

"I don't think this is the forum to go into that. I think we need to speak to the players as a group behind closed doors because it can't go on," he said.

"Something has got to break somewhere."