North Melbourne has been labelled as "one of the worst teams in the AFL era" by Kane Cornes.
The Kangaroos have won one of their last 27 games and look destined for their first wooden spoon since 1972.
Performances have improved in recent weeks but final term fadeouts have prevented them from adding to their win tally.
Cornes believes questions need to be answered about what has happened to the club in the past two years since they parted ways with Brad Scott in 2019.
“They’ve won one game out of their last 27 ... we're looking at one of the worst teams in the AFL era, when you look ar win-loss," Cornes said on AFL Media's The Round So Far and reported by SEN's Alex Zaia.
“I know they had a draw last week and they’ve been in some winnable positions, but they’ve won one game for the year. They've won one out of their last 27.
“What has gone on at this club?
2021 was always going to be a tough year for the Kangaroos after they made drastic changes to their list at the end of 2020, clearing out 11 players including Ben Brown.
David Noble was chosen to lead the rebuild after Rhyce Shaw stood down as coach and so far Noble has made it his mission to blood as many youngsters as possible.
Strong recruitment in the draft and potentially the trade and free agency periods will fast track the rebuild and make them competitve again.
The Roos can look no further than Richmond as inspiration for what strong recruitment can do, as the Tigers were considered the worst team since Fitzroy halfway through Damien Hardwick's first season in 2010 when they lost their first nine games by an average of 52.5 points.
However, strong recruitment and off-field decisions stabilised the club and made them competitive on-field. The Tigers made three finals in a row between 2013-2015 but failed to win any of their finals which piled pressure onto Hardwick.
2016 was a disaster for the Tigers and it appeared that Hardwick would be sacked by the board stood by their man and the rest is history as the Tigers won three of the last four flags.