Brad Scott says Saturday's loss against Melbourne highlighted North’s need for a more even contribution from its midfield.

Ben Cunnington was the Roos' best player against the Demons with a game-high 11 clearances, but aside from Shaun Higgins and Todd Goldstein (both five) no other North player had more than three.

"We need to find a way to bring our younger guys up to speed quicker, a few of them got a bit of a lesson today in midfield work," Scott said.

"But that's a bit of where we're at, we're going to continue to really work hard on developing midfielders for the club into the future.

"We certainly need to bring some in and we'll look to that. But Will Walker showed some signs again in the VFL today (and) we'll really persist with Luke (Davies-Uniacke) until he shows signs of dropping off.

"But we need to develop that area because at the moment it's being left to too few."

Scott said the Roos’ inability to nullify Max Gawn also played a significant part in the loss.

"I thought 'Goldy' responded at times, but on the whole Gawn really got a hold of him today," Scott said.

"Goldy's rucked well against him in the past, but Gawn was very dominant so we were very reactive in there.”

North vice-captain Robbie Tarrant was a late withdrawal from Saturday's game with a hamstring injury, but Scott expected him to be fit for North's game against Carlton at Blundstone Arena next Saturday night.

"It's not severe. The sports science team are saying it's not even really a strain, but there's a neural component to it, which presents a lot of risk," he said.

"If he's not clean, we weren't prepared to risk a month, four-to-six-week hamstring. He was very, very close. We gave him right up until the last minute and then brought Majak (Daw) in.

"The feedback to me has been we'd be very, very surprised if he was unavailable next week, but I'm loath to say it because we get it wrong half the time."