NORTH Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson has indicated Jackson Archer's suspension over the collision that knocked out Western Bulldogs defender Luke Cleary was based on outcome, rather than his actions alone.

Archer, the son of Kangaroos legend Glenn, will miss three games after unsuccessfully challenging his rough conduct ban at the Tribunal.

Clarkson and Bulldogs counterpart Luke Beveridge said post-match on Saturday the incident, where Archer's knee hit Cleary in the head, was an unfortunate collision and the Kangaroo didn't deserve a suspension.

Both pointed out Cleary could have given away a free kick for going to ground and making contact with Archer's legs.

The Match Review Officer graded the incident as careless conduct, high contact and severe impact, while Cleary wasn't cited.

"At the end of the day, there's a duty of care of both players in that particular instance," Clarkson said.

"So technically, you can probably say both players could have been reported for the same incident. But then it comes down to who got injured and what the outcome was."

Archer initially grabbed at his knee but was cleared of any injury.

"Bevo said it could have easily been a free kick to Archer. So it's a point of conjecture," Clarkson said. 

"But to be fair, when it first happened, the concern for us was just around our player, and we thought 'Arch has broken his leg'. 

"So three weeks compared to 12 months - there's a part of us is glass half-full, we're actually pretty happy with the result, because right in the immediate aftermath of it, I thought Arch was a lot of trouble. 

"This is a game of AFL footy where there's a heap of collisions and that was a pretty rare one to be fair, I haven't seen one like that for a fair period of time. 

"But the game is so chaotic and unfortunately we're going to see things like that from time to time where there'll be uproar.

"We need probably, as a game, to work out what decision is made on it. There's a decision that has been made on it and then we move on."

Carlton's Michael Voss and Essendon's Brad Scott indicated players would need to be more careful when attacking the contest.

"Well, I won't give that message to our players," Beveridge said.

"Ultimately he (Archer) came in at a rate of knots and I think initially, to win the footy, and ultimately I 100 per cent know that he didn't intend to hurt Luke. So I think he's really stiff. 

"So if he's unfortunate and unlucky, I don't want to coach our players in a way that they're just avoiding being unlucky.

"We've still got to play the game and if it means from time to time we're in these situations where maybe our players are being looked at for an incident ... and they're a bit unlucky, well so be it - you've just got to cop that."

Meanwhile, Clarkson said his Kangaroos side needed to learn how to win again but is confident they are well and truly on the path to doing so.

The Kangaroos were left to rue a slow start against the Western Bulldogs, who kicked five of the first six goals in Saturday night's round one clash, and withstood multiple North surges to win by 16 points.

But Clarkson was heartened by how North, which recorded just six wins between 2023 and 2024, stayed in the contest, and confident the tide would turn.

"We know we're getting closer, but we just got to listen to the noise inside the walls of our footy club, rather than the expectations outside, and know that if we can compete deeper into these games like we did on the weekend, then at some point in time that's going to materialise into some victories for us," Clarkson said.

"And then, as we saw with Hawthorn and some other sides, once you start to get that belief, then it can snowball. 

"And just at the minute, there's part of it, without a doubt, because we haven't won very often, there's part of it where we just have to learn how to win again. And hopefully we're on that path right at the moment.

"There's no silver bullet to it. It's just working hard out here on the track and just getting regular opportunities to play games and go through experiences like the weekend."

Clarkson noted the Kangaroos didn't convert in front of goal against the Bulldogs.

Their young midfield and ruck Tristan Xerri will embrace the challenge of taking on Melbourne big man Max Gawn and a star-studded onball division led by Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver on Sunday.

"(It's an) opportunity, but also enormous challenge," Clarkson said. 

"So that's exciting, and probably without trying to repeat what coaches have said for the last 100 years, it's going to be won or lost in the middle of the ground."

The Kangaroos will be without Archer and Griffin Logue (hamstring) but expect Charlie Comben (ankle) to play.

North will celebrate recruit Jack Darling's 300th game.

The veteran forward will make his second appearance in North colours after 298 games for West Coast.