Colin Sylvia and Hayden Ballantyne have both let the team down with undisciplined acts that have seen them suspended, while young forward Josh Simpson withdrew at late notice from the club's party scheduled to fly to Sydney for Saturday's clash with the Swans.
Despite the incidents, McPharlin denied there was a problem forming at the club.
“We believe our culture is very strong and has been for a number of years now,” he said.
“We’ve had a couple of incidents early in the season that we wish didn’t happen, but this is part and parcel of trying to organise and manage 46 players from different walks of life.
“For the great majority of our playing group it’s a very strong brand and a strong culture.
“Unfortunately, some players fall by the wayside, but we’ll deal with them internally.”
The All Australian defender admitted that having players unavailable because of a lack of discipline was a particularly tough pill to swallow.
“We lose players to injury, that’s part of the game, but to lose players for disciplinary reasons is really disappointing,” he said.
“Hayden (Ballantyne) I’m sure is very disappointed, as we all are, but he’ll cop his week and hopefully we can all move on.”
McPharlin, who is in the club’s leadership group, said no one has had an opportunity to talk to Simpson yet, but that all the leaders and coaches would meet to discuss the next course of action.
Senior coach Ross Lyon said after Saturday’s game in Sydney that the club would continue to support the 20-year-old.
McPharlin said Simpson’s situation was ‘enormously disappointing’ given how much the club has supported him.
“A lot of resources have been put into josh over the journey,” he said.
“We really want him to fulfil his enormous potential and play football for us.
“We were certainly excited about what he could do and how he could contribute to the side, but we stand at this point very disappointed with the outcome and we’ll have to make a decision moving forward.”
McPharlin said he’d always kept an open mind in cases such as Simpson’s, and highlighted the rise of Michael Walters in 2012, after he had been sent back to the WAFL for failing to meet the standards of AFL, as a good example.
“Michael Walters was the one that stands out in everyone’s mind, where no one really thought he would ever come back and play, but he’s certainly turned it around,” he said.
“But every individual is different.
“We put a lot of work into Michael Walters and he absolutely turned it around completely.
“I don’t think you can ever write any one off, but the incident on the weekend was pretty serious, and we’ll have to look at it.”
