The Roos' 7.5 (47) was two fewer goals than they'd kicked in any other game, win or lose. And after losing Jarrad Waite for probably the remainder of the home and away rounds, they're now sweating on the fitness of Brown, who left the field against the Bulldogs early in the second term nursing a knee injury, and didn't return.

Asked about Brown's chances of being available for next week's clash with Hawthorn, North Melbourne coach Brad Scott said: "I honestly don't know. They [medical staff] are cautiously optimistic, but I don't try and speculate on that, just wait and see."

Without Brown, the Roos' struggled for targets, Drew Petrie and Majak Daw both well-held. Scott said youngsters Ben McKay and Sam Durdin were potential selections against the Hawks if Brown didn't come up.

"Then there's options to change the forward structure completely, so we'll have a good look at it. If he [Brown] plays, great. If he doesn't, we'll just work out a way to restructure and go again."

Scott said the loss was a "mirror image" of the two sides' round six clash when it was the Roos who emerged victorious.

"It was disappointing. I think probably the story of the night for us is when you dominate parts of the game, disposals, but don't score and get scored against, then clearly you're doing something wrong, and we just over-possessed the ball under pressure.

"To their credit, they pressured really well and even though their pressure was really good, we invited it and continued to invite it and just had really good looks forward but we didn't take it, so they outplayed us in transition, even though we probably outplayed them in parts of the game."

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge, meanwhile, paid special tribute to young star Marcus Bontempelli, who was one of the Dogs' best despite being targeted for some physical treatment by the Kangaroos.

Bontempelli was involved in several scuffles with the Roos' more senior players as they tried to distract him from the task at hand.

But the super-cool youngster finished with 19 disposals and nine tackles, more than any other player on the ground.

"You didn't have to be Nostradamus to see what was going to happen," Beveridge said. "I thought we planned really well for it. For our group to be ready for that and stand up to it was enormous.

"If you look who's exited our midfield the last couple of weeks, 'Wally' [Mitch Wallis], 'Libber' [Tom Liberatore], Jack Macrae, Koby [Stevens] going back to the VFL to get some form, Marcus is a standout stalwart in there and there's no doubt the Kangaroos, like everybody, will think: 'If we stop Marcus Bontempelli, we're a chance to stop the midfield'.

"But he's made of pretty special substances, Marcus, and his teammates will always support him. I can imagine that's going to happen week to week regardless of who's out of our side … he's just got enormous courage and enormous character. I loved his game. At times, he sacrificed his game for the team."

Beveridge noted that the win might have been unexpected by the larger football world given how many key players the Bulldogs have lost to injury over recent weeks.

"They were enormous tonight, our boys, and probably up against the odds, and probably a little bit unexpected from the public at large, but we showed a lot of heart, and it was a great defensive effort to keep North Melbourne to that score, [the Roos' lowest of the season]."