NORTH Melbourne midfielder Ben Cunnington will miss the Kangaroos' round one clash against West Coast after accepting a one-match ban for kneeing Taylor Duryea.

Cunnington was charged for making high contact with his knee to the face of Duryea in the second quarter of Sunday's clash at Arden Street.

Duryea was lunging for the ball when Cunnington ran in. Cunnington kept his feet and failed to pull up time to avoid high contact.

The Kangaroos could have challenged and argued that Cunnington took all reasonable steps not to breach his duty of care to his opponent and contact was accidental, given Duryea lunged in his direction in the final moment to punch the ball.

Duryea was forced from the ground bleeding and received medical attention for 10 minutes, but he was able to play on.

"We’re obviously disappointed not to have Ben available for our season opener against the Eagles," Kangaroos football manager Cameron Joyce told the nmfc.com.au.

"But based on the classification handed to us by the MRP and after taking legal advice, there were no solid grounds for us to challenge the charge.

"It's something we deliberated over for much of yesterday and again this morning, but it was decided the risk of losing him for an additional week was too great."

The MRP graded the incident as careless conduct with medium impact to the head, with Cunnington accepting a one-match ban with an early guilty plea.

The Kangaroos' midfielder was one of two players suspended in the second week of the JLT Community Series, with Port Adelaide's Nathan Krakouer also accepting a one-match ban for rough conduct.

Krakouer charged through St Kilda's Sean Dempster when the Saint was on his knees attempting to collect the ball, making contact to the veteran's head.

The Power defender-turned-forward was saved by Dempster's ability to bounce up and take his kick, but the risk of serious injury likely saw the penalty increased to medium impact.

He will miss the round one clash against Sydney.

Young Melbourne star Jesse Hogan was offered a $1000 fine for making contact to an umpire in Saturday's clash against Carlton at Casey Fields.