Last year’s beaten grand finalists will face North Melbourne at Adelaide’s Norwood Oval on Friday, still chasing their first win of the season.

An 0-3 start has been inflamed after reports that the events of an off-season trip to the United States sparked turmoil among players and potentially impacted their form.

Fagan admits he has key men out of form but the noted man manager, a former school teacher before joining Melbourne as an assistant in 1998, sees no deeper issues.

“They’ve been a happy group all pre-season, is all I can say,” Fagan said on Wednesday.

“I think I’m a pretty good judge of how social interactions (and) relationships are going with team members.

“Probably that’s one of my strengths. So I’ve seen no evidence of any disharmony, which was what was suggested.”

He said the issue wouldn’t be ignored though after the side lost three successive regular-season games for the first time since 2018.

“All clubs do that all the time when you’re under the pump, so we’ll be no different to that,” Fagan said.

“At the end of the day all we’ve got is each other, so we’ll just be working hard at trying to get back to being the best version of ourselves this weekend.

“I always believe in moving towards the obstacles, not away from them.

“Don’t dodge anything, accept full responsibility for the way things are going, myself included, and just get on with it.

“That’s the best the best way to live your life because not everything goes perfectly.

“We’ve hit a little bump in the road right now, but you’ve got to have some fun trying to work your way through it and know and have confidence that eventually we’ll get there.”