Petrie had an outstanding 2009 season in which he finished fourth in the club's best and fairest, was the leading goalkicker and cemented himself as one of the premier versatile big men in the league.
He broke his foot prior to the season and Sunday's 61-point loss to Fremantle at Subiaco Oval was his first game of the year. While Petrie was happy to be playing, he labelled the effort embarrassing.
"It was good to get through a game even though it was embarrassing with how we played and the result. Personally it was good to get the old feeling back of being out there amongst it," he said.
"I don’t think you are a club man if you are not hurt after that. We are all embarrassed and that's the best word to sum up how we are feeling after that game."
Petrie did well for his first game back with 14 possessions and six marks, but believes he can play a lot better and hopes he gets to do that with fellow big men Hamish McIntosh, David Hale and Todd Goldstein in the side.
"It was really tough especially with the few hidings we copped. I just wanted to be out there amongst it with the boys trying to help and I wasn’t a very good spectator at all," he said.
"I marked it OK, but kicked like a donkey. I was no good in front of goals and didn’t give the side enough inside-50. I'm happy to be out there again. Hopefully we right a few wrongs the next month.
"It's worth persisting with and the structure worked OK. We just didn’t put enough defensive pressure on when the ball was going the other way. When we got it in there we looked all right."
The 27-year-old did see some pleasing signs from some of the young players in the side, but knows the senior members of the squad need to now stand up and be counted to lead the way.
"A lot of players who have played more than three or four years need to man up a bit over the next couple of weeks. Lindsay Thomas [was] very good, Ryan Bastinac for a first-year player was our best midfielder and Nathan O'Keefe took another step forward in his second game," he said.
"The club rates Nathan Grima very highly and so do I. He's a competitor, has plenty of mongrel in him and would have learned a lot from playing on a champion like Pav (Matthew Pavlich)."
North Melbourne has so far bounced back from thumpings by St Kilda, Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs this season and Petrie is confident it will again on Saturday night against the Brisbane Lions, but he wants more consistency.
"What happens the week after that and after that is where we are letting ourselves, and supporters and members down at the moment," he said.
"They will be pretty angry and disappointed with the side, which is fair enough and the only way we can fix that is by being more competitive and a consistent side."
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