NORTH MELBOURNE defender Drew Petrie says the next few rounds are critical to the Kangaroos’ fortunes for 2008.

After this week’s break North meets the West Coast Eagles (on the Gold Coast), the Western Bulldogs (Telstra Dome) and Brisbane Lions (at the Gabba).

“Yeah it’s important,” Petrie told kangaroos.com.au after the disappointing loss to Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.

“We can’t afford to slip away from the pack. Sides start to cement themselves in the top or bottom half of the ladder now. Those three games, we’ve really got to show some spirit and character and perform.”

Petrie said while the break for the Hall of Fame Tribute Match would be welcomed by some players, he’d rather be straight out making up for last night’s performance.

“To be honest, I really want to get out there in a week’s time and try and redeem ourselves,” Petrie said. “But if a few boys can get a rest it will probably be beneficial for us.”

Petrie offered no excuses for the below-par effort against Adelaide, especially the eight-goal-to-one third quarter. He said the previous high-intensity matches against Collingwood and Sydney hadn't left the Kangaroos any worse for wear.

“It was our first travel for the year – we’ve had our first six games in Melbourne, so our legs were great, no excuses from that perspective. We just let ourselves down,” Petrie said.

“The first half wasn’t too bad. We stuck with them and we applied some tactics we wanted to. But once they got a run on after half-time we probably went into our shells a bit and didn’t try and attack the game.

“Our defenders got beaten one-on-one tonight, which didn’t help, and our delivery to our forwards in the second half wasn’t great as well. We butchered the footy when we were going forward.

“We just didn’t stand up when we needed to.”