CONTRITE North Melbourne coach Brad Scott admits he is "embarrassed" by comments about umpires refusing to pay free kicks to Lindsay Thomas and will accept whatever sanction the AFL hands down.
The League is set to meet with the Kangaroos on Tuesday to address the fallout from Scott's explosive and incorrect post-match claim that umpires told his players during Friday night's loss to Hawthorn they wouldn't award Thomas high free kicks.
WATCH: Brad Scott claims umpires don't pay Lindsay free kicks
After realising the error, North Melbourne issued an unreserved apology to the AFL and the umpires department on Saturday and Scott expressed his remorse on Monday afternoon, with the possibility of a fine or even suspension still hanging over his head.
"I'm here to issue a public apology and whatever the AFL feel is an appropriate sanction, then I'll accept," Scott said.
Scott conceded it was a mistake airing his grievance publicly, instead of speaking to the AFL privately after only hearing of the alleged umpires' comments "from a trusted source" just minutes before walking into his press conference.
"I made a really terrible mistake by not fact-checking," Scott said.
"I assumed those comments to be matter of fact and I assumed they were right, but ultimately it's my responsibility to check those facts and I didn't and I chose to make the statements that I did.
"The apportion of blame falls squarely on my shoulders.
"There is certainly embarrassment because I've taken the attention away from where our football club would like it, and that's off our players."
Earlier on Monday, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan accepted the Roos' "clear apology" and didn't want to speculate on a possible sanction for Scott.
"I don't want to comment on where that's going. That's in the hands of (football operations boss) Mark Evans and the integrity team," McLachlan said.
"There's a process to play out there. I think the process has been clearly outlined. I think North Melbourne are in tomorrow morning and I imagine there will be a resolution tomorrow.
"All I would say is that the integrity of the officials in our game and in all sport is pretty paramount."