Rhyce Shaw has put his North Melbourne players on notice, declaring some of them will be fighting for their careers during the final stages of the AFL season.

A finals berth is out of the picture for the Kangaroos, who have endured a horror first full season under Shaw, with a long list of injuries contributing to a 3-9 record.

Only winless Adelaide sit below North on the ladder.

Shaw has not been afraid to make tough calls at selection in recent weeks, dropping high-profile recruits Jared Polec (twice), Jasper Pittard and Aaron Hall.

The former Collingwood and Sydney defender wants players to show him they deserve to be part of his plans, starting in Monday night’s clash with Collingwood at the Gabba.

“It’s around performing at the standard that we expect as a North Melbourne footballer,” Shaw told reporters on Sunday.

“That is about effort and work rate and playing your role, but it’s also about showing your strengths and giving them the ability to express themselves in a way that is in conjunction with our team values and structures.

“That’s all I expect and I think last week (a narrow loss to Brisbane) was a great step.”

North Melbourne made a promising start to 2020 but have managed just one win since round two and Shaw conceded it has been a battle to keep his players’ morale high.

“Life in the hub is very difficult anyway, but when you’re not getting the results on the field it certainly makes it a bit tougher,” Shaw said.

“But I’ve been really proud of the group and our club and all our staff.

“They’ve done a fantastic job to keep the ball rolling and keep the spirits up.

“We’ve got a really high-energy group of people up here and they’ve been fantastic.”

North Melbourne belted Collingwood by 44 points in June last year with the sort of complete performance that Shaw is still searching for this season.

“We pride ourselves on being a physically demanding team of the opposition and I think we’re still the No.1 pressure team in the competition at the moment, even though we haven’t been going that great,” Shaw said.

“That’s a really pleasing aspect of how we’re going about it and we just need a few other things around that to complement our pressure, but certainly Collingwood are a really good side.”