DUAL North Melbourne club champion Shaun Higgins intends to complete the final year of his contract next season and says he is yet to enter formal negotiations beyond that.

Higgins fronted the media on Tuesday as speculation continues about his playing future, including being linked with a move to Geelong, the side that thrashed the Roos by 55 points on Saturday night.

Asked if he wanted to stay at Arden St, the 31-year-old told reporters: "I'm contracted for next year, if people have forgotten that."

"The reports that came out last night, in terms of me rejecting (an extra one) year offer (and instead wanting two more seasons), are factually incorrect," Higgins said.

"I actually haven't received anything from the football club. A little bit baffling where that came from last night, but I guess that's part and parcel of the media."

FULL INJURY LIST Who's ruled out and who's a test?

Higgins was part of the error-prone North Melbourne side that scored only 14 points – the lowest score in club history – in the lopsided defeat to the Cats.

It was comfortably the worst team performance of Rhyce Shaw's coaching tenure, and the gun onballer said the players and coaches understood where they went wrong.

"We hope it's one out of the box, but it's not reviewed like that," Higgins said.

"We're clear on why the result was what it was and also what we need to do.

"It's good to just be able to compare, and you could see clearly what we were doing in the past when we were getting good results, and then what that looks like when we don't do it.

"It's definitely not brushed aside or (viewed) as a one-off. We reviewed it really strongly, but at the same time we need to move on, because we have a game this weekend."

Find Trends on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify

The result came a week after an impressive fightback from 27 points down in the opening quarter against Hawthorn, and Higgins conceded that "we didn't go about it the right way on the weekend".

However, he praised Shaw's ability to handle everything since Brad Scott's departure, especially the "unbelievable" way he had galvanised the players and the club as a whole.

"We don't want to be putting (Shaw) in that situation too often as players," Higgins said.

"We take responsibility for that performance and he was extremely disappointed after the game, as all of us were."