North Melbourne won't ask Jack Ziebell to take the bump out of his game even though it has cost him three lengthy suspensions in less than two years, former Roos skipper Brent Harvey says.

Ziebell accepted a three-week suspension from the Match Review Panel this week for bumping Crow Jarryd Lyons last Sunday.

Ziebell's penalty was bumped up from one week because of carryover points from his four-week suspension for last year's round 16 collision with Carlton's Aaron Joseph and his three-week ban for a front-on bump on St Kilda skipper Nick Riewoldt in round 23, 2011.

But Harvey said North would encourage Ziebell to continue attacking the ball and opponents with his usual aggression, saying to do otherwise would like telling Drew Petrie not to fly for his marks and Daniel Wells not to run with the ball.

"You can't tell somebody not to attack the football because if you do that, you're going away from how Brad (Scott) has played, you go away from the way he coaches, so we won't be telling Jack that," Harvey said at Aegis Park on Wednesday.

"The ball's there and Jack plays on instinct and that's the only thing Jack can do and that's the way 'Wellsy' plays, that's the way every single player plays.

"Unfortunately, he's copped another suspension. I honestly don't think Jack will change the way he's playing and I don't think he can change the way he's playing.

"We all see the way Jack attacks the football, he's going to give away a lot of free kicks and, unfortunately, he goes twice as hard as anyone else in the competition."

Harvey said Ziebell was "a bit flat" after his latest suspension and had texted him to say he was disappointed he wouldn't be able to join him for his 350th game and Wells for his 200th, against St Kilda this Sunday.

With North's round 12 bye due to fall during his suspension, Ziebell will effectively miss four weeks of football.

During his four-match suspension last year, Ziebell made the best of a bad situation, heading to Utah for a high-altitude training camp with teammate Brad McKenzie.

Harvey said he was not sure whether Ziebell would return to Utah over the coming weeks, but would use that time to work on his fitness regardless.

"He's an animal, he trains really, really hard and he'll take these three weeks now to train hard and get fitter and come back and make an impact, because we'll still be in the running to play finals football," Harvey said.

Harvey said North's leadership group – skipper Andrew Swallow, vice-captains Petrie and Ziebell, Wells, Scott Thompson and Harvey – had let the club down in last Sunday's fadeout loss to Adelaide.

After being five goals up midway through the last quarter, the Roos ground to a halt as the Crows stole a one-point win – North's fourth loss this year by four points or less.

"As a leadership group, we've got to take responsibility for that," Harvey said.

"Daniel and I are both in the leadership group and we're the first to take our hands up and say we need to get better in that area and make sure that everyone around us is switched on and ready to go in that last quarter because that's when we've lost a lot of games.

"I think there's a sense we let the whole football club down and our supporters.

"You can't be in that possession and lose games."