NORTH Melbourne midfielder Brady Rawlings admits the players are desperate to taste some success in Friday night’s showdown against Carlton at Docklands.

The Kangaroos 41 point loss to the Lions at the Gabba on Saturday night makes it eight games without a chance to sing the club song.

North's last victory came on May 23 in round nine when the Kangaroos hauled in a 26-point quarter time deficit against Fremantle at Docklands to win by 13 points.

Rawlings says the players are sick of losing just as much as the fans.

“The boys are desperate to have a win,” Rawlings said.

“Every week we’re going out there trying as hard as we can but this week’s probably a little bit more important because a lot of our supporters will be watching it on TV so they want to see the club play some exciting footy.”

Speaking just before midnight after conducting a recovery session in their hotel pool in Brisbane, Rawlings said the team had been very positive leading into the Lions game.

“We actually really like coming up to the Gabba,” Rawlings said.

“It’s good getting away with the boys, and the training session before the game was really enjoyable.”

“We went into the game confident and thinking that we were a pretty good show tonight, but unfortunately we probably didn’t use it as well as they did going inside-50.”

Rawlings picked up 25 disposals and 7 marks as the Kangaroos racked up more possessions than the Lions (423 to 373), but the veteran of  196 games believes the numbers were misleading.

“I think they forced us into over-possessing the ball and going backwards and sideways so that wasn’t the uncontested ball that we wanted,” Rawlings said.

Rawlings paid tribute to the Lions defensive unit, led by Daniel Merrett, Joel Patfull and Joel MacDonald.

“They’re pretty good at getting back in support so it’s quite hard to spot up blokes coming out of the backline,” Rawlings said.

Rawlings admits the 41 point margin was deflating after a string of solid performances, but says the team’s attention quickly turned to the next assignment.

“Up until this week we felt like we were getting closer (to a win),” Rawlings said.

“We have played some pretty good footy in recent weeks and it’s pretty frustrating at the moment to keep putting all the hard work in and not get any results so we just really want to have a win.”

“We’ve just got to put everything into Carlton on Friday night, give it everything we’ve got and show the public what we can do.”