BRAD Scott has defended the actions of full-back Scott Thompson, who like opponent Barry Hall was reported twice in North Melbourne's 70-point loss to the Western Bulldogs on Saturday.

Thompson was booked for headbutting and wrestling after a second-quarter altercation with Hall, which left the hot-headed forward incensed to the point that he was taken from the ground.

Scott said he was "really proud" of Thompson's efforts in the game.

"I thought he played the way a full-back should play," the coach said.

"He got a reaction out of the full-forward. I don't think Scotty did anything untoward at all."

Scott said the final score was an "unfair reflection" of North's development.

Despite the goal discrepancy, the Roos were not comprehensively beaten in other key statistics, narrowly losing on clearances (37 to 30) and inside 50s (53 to 47).

However, Scott said their disposal was lacking as a well-drilled Dogs outfit capitalised on fundamental skill errors.

At one stage in the second quarter, the Roos had sent the ball inside 50 on 24 occasions for just three possessions.

"Goalkicking and accuracy - you can work on all the things you work on at training and practise it, but under the pressure of a game, sometimes you miss shots you should make and clearly it costs you," Scott said.

"We work on it really hard and I am a coach who believes in practising skill execution repeatedly and we do that. Clearly we need to do more."

Scott said North, in 10th place on the AFL ladder with four wins and five losses, showed it could compete with the best sides in the competition.

However, the heavy loss to the Bulldogs follows one-sided results against St Kilda and Collingwood this season.

"Clearly I'm not shying away from the fact that this is the third time we have come against a genuine contender ... and let ourselves down badly," he said.

"But this game, we had a real opportunity to win. We took the game up to them, had our opportunities in the first quarter and didn't take them. Like all the other good sides, they make you pay when you don't take your opportunities.

"The pleasing thing and the really positive thing is that we know against a good side we can compete with them. But we've got to take our chances if we want to be one of those genuine contenders.

"We still made poor errors and poor decisions going forward which really killed us."