North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson expects tough veteran midfielder Ben Cunnington to respond strongly after he was a surprise substitution in the Roos' loss to Carlton.

Cunnington was substituted out of the Good Friday SuperClash for Hugh Greenwood midway through the third quarter of the 16.11 (107) to 11.18 (84) defeat, with 10 disposals, seven contested possessions and zero clearances.

It was the first time he had gone without a clearance since round three, 2012, while he had averaged 21 disposals and 4.7 clearances across the first three rounds.

"The rationale behind it: Cunners has been a great player for our footy club and hopefully will continue to be, but he’s a clearance beast and we need him to be getting clearances for our side and he’d had none halfway through the third quarter," Clarkson said post-game.

"He’d be disappointed in that, but we just needed to try something different.

"So Hughy Greenwood came on and he was able to give us a little spark in that area and Cunners just didn’t have a great day.

"We just can't keep blokes on the field. If they're not playing their role to their capability then we need to make a change and that's the way (it played out).

"He took it in the right manner, like you’d expect him to, and hopefully he’ll be better for it next week."

Greenwood had four clearances and 11 disposals in his limited time on the ground.

The Kangaroos were attempting to respond to Carlton getting on top around stoppages and Clarkson said he’d spoken to Cunnington about the decision.

KANGAROOS v BLUES Full match coverage and stats

"I spoke to him at the time," he said.

"Sometimes it’s just, at that point in the game we were starting to lose control of the game and it’s just like, 'We’ve got a fresh player there, who hasn’t been performing their role to their capabilities?'

"And it was the middle of the ground, we felt like we’d just fallen down a little bit at that point in time with the supply they were getting.

"So we just made the change. Sometimes you make it on a whim and just hope for the best.

"It’s hard when they’re strong, experienced players like that who are so proud and they can turn it around themselves quite often, but we just thought we’d try something different and Hughy helped us a little bit."

The Roos matched it against the Blues for the first half before Carlton pulled away. 

"It was important that we put on a good show and we did for a fair patch of the game," Clarkson said.

"But those two big buggers for the Blues - we said prior to the game and everyone knew it, if we could try and limit the supply that those guys had then we'd be a chance.

"But the dam wall opened in the third quarter and we just couldn't stop the big fellas."

Logue will return against Brisbane while Clarkson was optimistic he'd be joined by Ben McKay.