NORTH Melbourne coach Brad Scott was frustrated by some aspects of the umpiring during his team's one-point loss against the Western Bulldogs, but stressed the Kangaroos had not – and would not – dwell on it.

The Kangaroos were on the wrong end of the free kick count during Saturday night's game at Etihad Stadium, receiving 14 to the Bulldogs' 26.

When the Bulldogs went into half-time with a 21-point lead, the count sat at an even more lopsided 4-16.

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There were several controversial moments in the second half. Just before three-quarter time, Shaun Higgins was tackled from behind when he was about to take a set shot from 45m, after the umpire behind play called play on.

And a Ben Brown 'goal' that would have put the Roos ahead late in the game was disallowed after a free kick was paid against Mason Wood for an illegal shepherd. 

"You can talk about it. I can just sit here and say I can't talk about it. I know that at half-time there would have been a lot of dialogue amongst media outlets, fans etc, but we didn't talk about it at all, we didn't mention it for a micro-second," Scott said.

"We were talking about the way we were playing and what we needed to do to get ourselves back in the game.

"I'm not telling you that you're not frustrated at certain times, obviously everyone associated with North Melbourne was frustrated at certain times in the first half in particular, but what are you going to do about it? 

"And that's what we had to focus on. I was really pleased that the players didn't allow their frustrations to cost us. We certainly turned the game around after half-time." 

Five talking points: Western Bulldogs v North Melbourne

Asked about the Higgins incident, Scott said "a little bit of common sense" needed to be shown about whether someone has heard a play-on call given players 10m from the interchange bench often can't hear instructions from club staff.

Scott did not see the free kick paid against Wood and, at the time of his post-match media conference, had not watched a replay.

North cut the Bulldogs' lead to 13 points with a five-goal third term, but looked gone when the Dogs kicked the first two goals of the final quarter to extend their buffer to 26 points.

But the Roos hit back with the next four goals – two through Ben Cunnington – and levelled the scores when Higgins kicked a behind at the 28-minute mark before Jake Stringer had the final say with a match-winning point from a set shot in the final minute.

After poor losses to Richmond and St Kilda in their previous two games, Scott said the performance was much closer to the way North wanted to play.

"I'm more concerned about getting a bit of our identity back as a team and I thought after the previous two games we didn't look anything like what we'd produced earlier in the year in terms of the way we want to play. And I thought tonight particularly after half-time it was much better," Scott said.

"We gave ourselves a chance to win, a lot of things happened that can go either way.

"We're obviously bitterly disappointed but in terms of the bigger picture we got back on track, which means the bigger picture is where we want it to be."

WATCH: Brad Scott's full media conference

Scott lauded Cunnington's leadership during the last quarter when the midfielder had 12 possessions and kicked two goals.

The Roos coach said the move of Jarrad Waite on to the wing had been made partly to create a spot for Majak Daw in North's team.

"We were pretty keen to bring Majak in after a long string of injuries so we just had to look at our flexibility there and Waitey certainly gives us a fair bit of flexibility," Scott said.

"We'll move him around in the second half of the year and play him in some different roles. There's probably not a position on the ground that he can't play, including the ruck."