The Kangaroos had few answers for Fremantle’s hard-running game and could not shut down power forward Matthew Pavlich, who kicked eight goals in a commanding performance.
Further adding to North's woes was the loss of star ruckman Hamish McIntosh with a posterior cruciate injury to his right knee, which will sideline him for up to 10 weeks.
In a blunt assessment of his side’s capitulation, Laidley said the same players who had done so well in last week’s close loss to Geelong had gone missing against Fremantle.
He suggested a lack of maturity may have played a part in the downfall.
"Everyone was telling me how well they played last week and they probably played like that today, particularly our young guys, which was pretty disappointing," Laidley said.
"We were comprehensively beaten across the board. That’s what you get perhaps when you have a lot of those young guys.
"And you don’t want to use it as an excuse but, for the life of me, I’d like to know whether it was a mental or a physical thing when you play like you did eight days ago and then you serve up what you serve up today."
Laidley said he there was no lack of effort in preparing the players for the game.
"We put enough time into them but we didn’t go over the top," he said.
"Because we’ve got such a young side, we need to make sure that we do the basics well and teach them well and to play the way we want them to play."
North Melbourne must now regroup to face the daunting task of taking on Hawthorn next Saturday.
Laidley conceded the loss of McIntosh would pose a challenge, particularly with the Kangaroos already carrying a long injury list.
"We’re probably not going to get too many back," Laidley said.
"[It] depends how Corey (Jones) went today (in the VFL). Shannon (Grant), his back and his hamstrings haven’t been good on flights so I just thought this flight here probably wasn’t best suited for him but you’d think he’d come back next week but any other guy’s still a way off.
"So just to lose [McIntosh] now for probably up to 10 weeks, depending on how bad it is, the news is always going to be disappointing.
"But you cop your whack and you get on with it. We’ll send out our best 22 and we’ll go out there to win the game of footy like we do every week.
