James Brayshaw has refuted claims Brad Scott isn’t hard enough on his players. The Chairman insisted individual members of the team are responsible for the consistency of effort that is delivered on the field, while believing the split round is a chance for the players to dig deep and find some answers for their up and down season.

“I think Brad Scott’s elite and I have enormous admiration for him, I think he is and he’s going to be a terrific senior coach for our club so I have no problems there,” Brayshaw told 3AW’s Sports Today.

PRESS PLAY above to listen to the full Brayshaw interview.

“An analogy I used the other day on my radio show was when I was walking off the Gabba looking up at the scoreboard…I wasn’t looking for a coach to blame. If you’re going to be any good at elite sport, you’ve got to take the responsibility for your own performance on yourself.

"You’ve got to work out how you can make sure that your best is really good but your worst isn’t much below it.

“We’ve got great coaches around them now, we have an elite facility, the ground has been re-done and is superb. Everything an elite footballer wants they get at North Melbourne. For the players I reckon this break has come at a good time for them to look inwardly and go ‘right, how am I going to make sure these fluctuations stop happening?’

With a record-breaking 40,000 members signing up in support of the Roos this year, Brayshaw reflected on the incredible growth and transformation that even he didn’t expect to transpire so quickly.

“It’s enormous. I remember sitting in a strategic meeting where the heads of the business were putting down their five year plan and myself and another couple of board members were sitting in there listening to what they were planning. Right at the end of the meeting someone said ‘40,000 members should be in there’,” Brayshaw explained.

“I remember saying ‘be careful putting stretch targets that are that far out of reach that when the five years comes up they embarrass us as a business’. The management said ‘no, we believe it should be in there’.

“I wrote an email to everyone today who was at that meeting and said what a triumph it is because I thought, hand over my heart, that it was impossible in that timeframe. We’re humbled by the support we’ve had from our great people, that’s for sure.”

The milestone number isn’t just about getting more people to games; the increase in support helps benefits North as a whole in its pursuit to compete with the top sides commercially and on the field.

“It not only talks of membership but that translates into eyeballs on television, merchandise sales, attendance, all of the key indicators that talk of a healthier business. There’s no doubt that the Tasmanian members makes an enormous difference to our overall number as well. The membership now is drawn from all over the place and all different styles of memberships.

“Whether it’s Collingwood on 80,000…or us at 40 (thousand), they’re important no matter which category they go for because it gives you access to people who are hopefully rusted on fans and then want to come and watch, watch on TV, listen on radio and buy your gear. And that’s the way you create a buoyant business.”

A suggestion by Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson that the AFL match review panel should act quicker in response to incidences relating to a Friday night game could have some merit according to Brayshaw after the amount of media attention and discussion surrounding the contentious Drew Petrie and Brian Lake incident of Round 16.

“I thought actually the only thing Drew did wrong was probably went a bit old school and tried to help the other bloke involved which puts you in a pretty compromising position in the modern tribunal era.

“I felt for Drew a bit because he’d been booked in to do the Sunday Footy Show and when I watched what he said I thought, well he’s really trying to help Brian Lake but at the same time he’s maybe not doing his own case a hell of a lot of good.

"If Clarko’s saying in these instances the two involved shouldn’t be in the media prior to the hearing, then maybe there’s something in that. These interviews are booked a long way out, then it leaves producers and shows high and dry (if its cancelled).”