WEST Coast will seek clarity on an interchange hold-up during Saturday's one-point loss to North Melbourne, with coach Andrew McQualter querying why the Eagles were not able to replace concussed wingman Hamish Davis before play was restarted.

Davis will enter concussion protocols after his head hit the Optus Stadium turf in a crunching tackle from North forward Paul Curtis during the first quarter, which will draw Match Review scrutiny.

KANGAROOS v EAGLES Full match coverage and stats

Play was stopped while he was helped from the ground by two trainers, but frustrated Eagle Ryan Maric was not allowed to enter the game until Davis reached the bench, with play re-starting while West Coast had 17 active players on the ground.

McQualter said the incident cost his team a goal, with the Kangaroos pumping the ball inside 50 where spearhead Nick Larkey was awarded a free kick in the goalsquare as Eagles defenders scrambled.

"I'm going to seek some clarity on this because I'm led to believe if the HIA (head injury assessment) is called, the match-day manager has a responsibility to send the player from the interchange on straight away," McQualter said on Saturday night. 

"So maybe a mistake was made in that. I'm going to have to seek that out and find out where that mistake was, because it cost us a goal.

"I think it was fairly clear Hamish was concussed. Fortunately, he's in a good position now, but potentially a mistake was made."

While Davis will enter concussion protocols, he could return without missing a match as the Eagles head into their round 15 bye before a clash against Carlton at Marvel Stadium on June 27.

West Coast was a man down following the opening quarter incident and fell 20 points behind early in the final term, but they rallied late and would likely have won a hard-fought match if Jake Waterman had converted a 35m set shot directly in front in the dying stages.

McQualter said his spearhead, who booted 3.3 and leads the competition for score involvements, would be "riding the emotion" of his continued set-shot kicking struggles in what has otherwise been a dominant season from the key forward.

The coach said the Eagles were lucky to have Waterman, and he was not alone in missing a gettable shot as both teams left opportunities on the table throughout the match.

"I absolutely love that I've got a key forward having the most shots in the competition. What an absolute treat that is to be able to coach someone like that," McQualter said.

"I love how Jake's competing, and he'll be riding the emotion of this, he's such a proud competitor, and we're just going to support him.

"He's going to continue to work hard, which he always does, and he shows the way for our young key forwards.

"We got an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old next to him in that forward line, and if they're seeing him as the example, they're going to be set up for good long careers."

McQualter said the Eagles would continue working with Waterman on his set shot kicking and showing the All Australian evidence of the hard work he is doing in games to compete and give himself chances.

The coach said teenage sidekick Jobe Shanahan had changed the game in the second half with his ability to win aerial contests in the back half, before shooting forward to kick a pair of late goals and take some stunning contested marks.

"If Jobe continues to work hard like he is, we're going to have a serious player for a long time," McQualter said.

"He's going to have ups and downs, as 19-year-old key forwards do, but we'll just keep working hard and giving him the best chance we can to jump at the ball and show his strength."

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson said his team had been "lucky" to win after the Eagles surged late, but they had responded as they needed to after a torrid week in Perth following a 124-point loss to Fremantle.

"It's a fine line between pleasure and pain isn’t it? I can't tell you I was overly confident that Jake was going to miss that shot. We were lucky to win in the end," Clarkson said.

"We did do enough, however, particularly coming off such a poor performance last week. We tackled well and we applied a lot of pressure.

"West Coast over here, when the winds behind their sails, they can get going. We did really well to hold them back, but just luck that we ended up winning the game, really, because with it at the death knock, they probably should have finished that goal and won the game of footy."

Clarkson said the Kangaroos' season was still alive at 6-7 after a gruelling stretch of games, with the team splitting its WA 'home' games 1-1 for the second straight season.

They entered Saturday's clash after a 1-5 run, but now enter a more even section of their draw with clashes against Richmond, Essendon and Port Adelaide to come in the next three weeks.