ALASTAIR Clarkson has again blamed his club’s 101-point loss to Geelong on being a young side with a lack of experience.

After conceding 150 points to the Cats in a game that saw Jeremy Cameron hit a career-high 11 goals, North Melbourne's defence was unable to keep up with Geelong's, going down by a three-digit margin – the only team to do so in 2025.

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In what was the third blowout loss for the Kangaroos this year, after their 82-point loss to Carlton in round six and 85-points to Hawthorn in Tasmania a month ago, Clarkson said his defence was no match for the skilled Cats forward line.

"I think Jeremy Cameron probably had more games on his own than the collective group of North Melbourne defenders that made up our back seven," Clarkson said.

"Like I said, [look at] the Geelong forward line versus the North Melbourne back line and just see the void that sits there in terms of just experience and exposure."

"I don't want to make excuses for our players, but it's where we're at. We've given these young players some exposure and some opportunity, but in our back end in particular, we were going to be left very, very vulnerable down there against a really formidable forward line for the Cats.

"We know where we are as a footy club."

In the absence of Nick Larkey, who has missed the last three weeks due to knee soreness, Clarkson put defender Charlie Comben in the forward line to fill the height gap.

However, the coach admitted the move further exposed the Roos' raw backline.

"The dam had already broken, but … we take Charlie Comben up forward to cover for Nick Larkey, knowing full well he’s been pretty good for us down back," Clarkson said.

"We just hung in there for as long as we possibly could, but then he goes back in the last quarter and he's actually pretty good in the last quarter."

In the absence of Comben, as well as Luke McDonald and Jackson Archer due to injury, North's makeshift defence left Jeremy Cameron unattended on too many occasions.

Clarkson shared his frustrations with the number of goals conceded to the star forward off the back of a Kangaroos turnover.

"It was nearly laughable how far forward he was just waiting for the ball to come back to him.

"And that's what I'm talking about – the quality of possessions. I think most of 'Jezza's' goals that he scored were off a turnover from us."

Clarkson may have been looking at Cameron’s individual scoreline, but the forward star's own coach, Chris Scott, wasn't.

"I know you said that the individuals were obvious. It was actually less obvious to me," Scott said.

"I think I only heard that Bailey Smith had a lot of the ball as well. I just don't, those sorts of stats don't interest me much, even in the post-match, it's not something that I focus on very much. Sorry to be boring.

"I just thought the things that that we were looking for irrespective of who was in that position, was executed pretty well."

The Cats have a relatively easy run home to finals, with all four remaining opposition sides sitting below them, out of the top eight.

Despite being impressed with his team’s overall conducive performance, Scott says they're not getting overconfident, as they prepare to improve their defence for their finals campaign.

"We don't think we were quite defending as well as some of the best teams in the competition [in the last few weeks]" he said.

"Again we're not stat driven, but when you see really strong discrepancies in some of the numbers between us and some of the other teams then that tells you something.

"My observation is that the top nine teams at the moment would all think that they could beat each other on their day. So, we understand that we don't have much room to move with the way we play."

The Cats made the choice to sub out veteran Patrick Dangerfield in the third quarter, taking advantage of their significant lead to manage the 35-year-old.

Scott said managing veteran players is not something they’ll be actively thinking about as they round out the season, with tonight’s decision a spur of the moment one.

"It was just a half-time thing; we thought that it was an opportunity to [sub him off]," Scott said.

"It was in the back of our mind - literally in the back of our mind - it's not something that we're thinking about. I mean, we are thinking about it behind closed doors.

"But…we've got other priorities in thinking about how we manage our best players; this was just something in the moment that kind of, felt right to us."