NORTH Melbourne coach Darren Crocker says his club made the correct decision in playing retiring Adam Simpson against Carlton on Friday, despite the veteran straining a calf at training the day before the match.

Simpson got through the match – and collected 20 disposals – but was limping at times and appeared to be struggling in his running motion at times.

Crocker and the now-retired Kangaroos fronted the media after the match, which the Blues held off an inaccurate North side to win by just 10 points.

And the caretaker coach said his club made the right call in allowing the Kangaroos great a farewell match.

“I think he contributed and I don’t think the injury was bad enough for him to be pulled out, and then have such a build-up throughout the week and then have the psychological let-down that the other 21 players would have then had to deal with,” Crocker said

Friday night’s 14.10 (94) to 11.18 (84) loss was another case of missed opportunity for Crocker, who is yet to taste success since taking over from Dean Laidley.

“It’s been frustrating that we’ve been able to come so far in so many games and be in winning positions and no be able to get over the line,” he said.

“We really were all over the top of them. I asked the boys for a special effort at three-quarter time, considering the circumstances with Simmo’s last game, and they really responded [with] 14 inside 50s.

“But unfortunately we couldn’t put them through the big sticks.”

The Kangaroos booted 0.9 and one out on the full in the final term as Carlton kicked 2.3 to hold on despite North’s gutsy effort.

The Roos were down one man after Leigh Harding had strained a hamstring, and Crocker would have liked to have kept Levi Greenwood on Chris Judd.

The North youngster did a superb blanketing job early and was one of a number of positives for Crocker.

“He kept Juddy to seven touches in the first half and then Levi hurt his knee in the third quarter and was struggling to go with him,” Crocker said.

“We had to make the change in the last quarter and that’s when Juddy got off the leash and got quite a few of his touches.

“But I thought … it was a real glimpse of the future with the job he was doing early.”

The coach was also impressed with the defensive work of full-back Scott Thompson, who enjoyed a super duel with Brendan Fevola, while Andrew Swallow won plenty of hard ball in the middle.

With Simpson now having departed Arden Street as a player, Crocker said finding alternatives through the centre of the ground was among the priorities.

“We’ve been experimenting with guys like Josh [Gibson], Michael Firrito, Leigh Harding going through there,” he said.

“If you looked at our season as a whole our contested ball’s been down between the arcs and our inside 50s have been down … so we’ll continue to try to find guys that can give us the right balance through there.”