James Brayshaw has urged North Melbourne players to fix their poor kicking in front of goals and “take responsibility” before any chance of playing finals slips away.

Despite a “very poor” second quarter, Brayshaw said the Roos’ inaccuracy cost them once again on Saturday night after a 16-point loss to the Swans at Etihad Stadium.

“Much more of an issue for me is (Robin) Nahas misses, ‘Boomer’ (Brent Harvey) misses twice, and then Lindsay (Thomas) misses, and then ‘Ziebs’ (Jack Ziebell) misses, and then (Jarrad) Waite misses, and then ‘Higgo’ (Shaun Higgins) misses,” Brayshaw said on Triple M’s Rush Hour program.

“That’s six or seven. You only have to kick half of them, you win the game – that’s what kills you.”

North’s season is on a knife’s edge according to interim coach Darren Crocker with the side at 5-6 after 11 rounds.

“It (inaccuracy) killed us against Collingwood, it nearly killed us against Essendon, it killed us against Port, so eventually the players have got to take responsibility on themselves and go, ‘if we are going to win this game of footy, I’ve got to kick the goal, I can’t miss and I can’t miss again and again and again’.”

The Kangaroos will need to be on their game as they head to Spotless Stadium in Sydney on Saturday to clash with the fifth-placed Giants.

“That for me was the biggest issue on the weekend. You kick half of them, you come storming home, you win a rousing game against an unbelievably good team and it’s a really good performance.”

Of its main goal-kickers, Ben Brown is North’s best sharp shooter going at 65.2% and a season tally of 15 goals. Robbie Nahas (56.5%, 13 goals) is second followed by Shaun Higgins (54.1%, 20 goals).

As Brayshaw highlighted, North has squandered many opportunities in recent times with costly kicking. Against Fremantle the Roos booted 5.12, in their loss to Collingwood they registered 14.11 and in the defeat to Sydney the scoreboard read 10.15.

As a team, North’s accuracy sits at 49.8% - ranked 11th in the competition.

Collingwood sits on top of the list across the competition with its players operating at 56% collectively. It also boast one of the league’s deadliest shots at goal with Jamie Elliott (25 goals) splitting the middle 69.4% of the time.