KANGAROOS coach Dean Laidley has made a public plea for club in-fighting to end.
Laidley said on Friday signs were emerging that the constant ructions were having a detrimental effect on the players and on-field performances were likely to suffer as a result.
Speculation about a permanent move to the Gold Coast and discussions about the club's ownership structure had created a pervading sense of unease, he said.
"Right now, all I say is sort it out and sort it out pretty quick," Laidley said.
"It's hard enough with the position that we're in competing each week.
"I'm saying this from a member point of view and a player point of view.
"Because for the first time this week I've realised it is having a great effect on the playing group.
"There's been a couple of players who have played a hell of a lot of games for this football club making comments about what's happening.
"We say sort it out.
"We're at the coalface of the football club and I'm not just talking about the football department here, I'm talking about all departments of the football club."
Laidley said during the past week in particular players had started wondering aloud where the club was heading.
"When you start to hear and see that, that's when the alarm bells start ringing," he said.
"It is starting to have an effect.
"We're doing the best that we can on-field at present.
"The members want to know, the players want to know and I feel for them, it's time to sort it out."
Unlike other AFL clubs, the Kangaroos are privately owned and controlled by a small group of shareholders with voting rights.
The latest dispute stems from a secret meeting between several shareholders and key AFL officials on Tuesday night to gauge interest in the idea of a league buyout of the club.
Not all shareholders knew of the meeting and some board members were also kept in the dark.
The secrecy prompted a suggestion by former director Peter de Rauch, who is also the club's biggest shareholder, that it was part of a plot to move the Kangaroos to the Gold Coast fulltime next year, an accusation denied by the AFL.
Laidley said he did not want to express an opinion on whether the AFL should buy out the shareholders, only to make a plea with those in power to resolve their differences somehow.
"My imprimatur is to coach the football team and we're doing it to the best of our ability now with the resources that we have," he said.
"But it is getting more difficult each week."
He said the players were doing an admirable job to continue preparing and playing to the best of their ability, despite having suffered narrow losses in all three rounds so far.
"It's my job to keep the spirit amongst the group and keep it positive and as I said we've been doing everything we can to do that," he said ahead of Saturday night's clash with the Brisbane Lions at Carrara.
"But I can see it is starting to have an impact."
