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Anything less than a grand final win will be seen as a failure at Arden Street, Ben Brown says.
North Melbourne and inner-city rivals Richmond both held open training sessions on Saturday morning, a day before their do-or-die elimination final match.
Tigers defender Troy Chaplin left the oval early, casting some doubt over his readiness for the clash.
Brown had just signed a new, two-year contract with the Kangaroos and said he was thrilled by the sight of several hundred fans who had showed up to watch the team go through their paces.
North Melbourne coach Brad Scott was the subject of a great deal of criticism last week for choosing to rest nine players for their round 23 game against Richmond, a match where the result was highly unlikely to have any influence on where the two teams finished within the top eight.
That game was on Friday night, which meant even players who did not get rested were coming off a nine-day spell.
"It has seemed like a little bit of a long break I suppose, but it's starting to build up now and the atmosphere here at Arden Street is electric," Brown said.
Asked whether losing to the Tigers would feel like a failure, Brown went a step further, saying the Roos would only be happy if they went all the way.
"If we don't win the premiership at the end of the day that's a failure to us, because that's what we play for," he said.
It was fantastic to have forward Lindsay Thomas back in the side after he had missed two games with a foot injury, Brown said.
"He's exactly what we want in our forward line, it's great to have him back out there and I'm sure he'll have an impact, he's a big finals player," he said.
At Punt Road, Chaplin left Richmond's training session 15 minutes early.
Chaplin had trained with a group of rehabilitating players earlier in the week, which the club said was simply due to soreness from their clash with the Kangaroos.
The defender was chosen at halfback in the Tigers' starting line-up for Sunday and ran through some light drills at their last training, but he left half an hour into the 45 minute session.
Chaplin and teammate Alex Rance were accused of using "tunnelling" techniques against the 'Roos, pushing their opponents under the ball during contests, putting them at risk of injury.
Brown said he did not think the Richmond players had done anything unusual.
"It's not just the Richmond defenders who do it, it's body spoiling, our defenders do that as well."
Hundreds of fans showed up to Punt Road to watch the players go through their paces.