Brad Scott says North Melbourne has no ill-feeling towards young Hawk Ryan Burton, who bumped Shaun Higgins in the early stages of the second half on Sunday, forcing him from the ground.

Burton avoided suspension for his hit on Higgins, despite the Roos' midfielder being stretchered off and hospitalised.

“From my perspective, there was no malice in that act whatsoever,” the North coach told Fox Footy’s On The Couch.

“Shaun and the Higgins family don’t feel aggrieved, we don’t feel aggrieved, so I’m not concerned or angry about the outcome by any stretch of the imagination, but I think some clarity would help all coaches and clubs.”

Scott, who has been in the AFL system as a player and coach for the past 21 years, believes it was not the intention of Burton to concuss Higgins, rather it was an honest mistake.

“It was that long ago that I played, but I understand [the situation Burton was in],” Scott said.

“My personal opinion is that Burton thought that Shaun was going to kick the ball, and so he was sort of half pulling-out of the action anyway, and he got caught in between.

“Like I said, no malice, but I was of the impression that if you do choose to bump and it goes wrong you’re in trouble.”

Moments after both Higgins and Ed Vickers-Willis were concussed, defender Majak Daw won a free kick for a chase-down tackle on Taylor Duryea.

Daw’s decision to tackle follows the instruction Scott gives to his players at training, to avoid any uncertainty.

“My direction to the players as coach is to be very careful about bumping,” he said.

“If the player’s got the ball you should be thinking tackle, because if you bump and it goes wrong, there’s a serious chance you’re in trouble.

“There are plenty of times when the player chooses to bump and the ball carrier just rides the bump and runs on his merry way.

“The message is the same, that we should be trying to tackle the ball-carrier.”

Scott, who was one of the toughest players during his playing career, doesn’t want to see the bump removed from the game off the back of this incident.

“I would like to see the bump retained, provided we don’t see incidents like this on a regular basis.”