North Melbourne have applauded rover Brent Harvey as one of the AFL greats - but will deliberately play down his 250th game this weekend.

The 30-year-old will move to eighth on the Kangaroos' all-time games table when he lines up against the Western Bulldogs at Telstra Dome this Sunday.

But the last thing coach Dean Laidley wants is to make a fuss of the milestone.

"I'll probably downplay it a little bit and make sure we focus on our actions," Laidley said.

"I think you can use it in the right way which is terrific but you can also use it and it can become quite negative and you get overawed by the occasions so I think it's a fine line."

But Laidley was quick to praise Harvey, who club games record-holder Glenn Archer believes will go on to pass his mark of 311 games.

"He's just been a wonderful player. I've had the privilege to coach him now for six years in his career and he's been a marvellous talent.

"He's won three best and fairest and he's really rounded off his game I think in the last 18 months.

"By the time he finishes playing he's going to be one of the all-time greats, certainly of this football club, and of the league.

"The way he plays - he looks like a jockey, but he's a very, very good player and a very smart player."

The Kangaroos emerged with a hard-fought one-goal win over West Coast last week and Laidley said the spirit which got the club the points will need to be repeated this weekend.

"I thought, particularly after half-time, our contested football was terrific and we're going to need to do this on the weekend against the Bulldogs," he said.

"They're a very, very slick, very, very smart outfit and have played particularly well this year and have really improved in a lot of areas."

The Roos have won their past three encounters with the Bulldogs, but Laidley said the scoreline was misleading.

"If you look at the last game we played them last year, where they were at, where we were at, completely different ends of the scale, then they lost a lot of players just before we played them mid-season last year so we probably copped them at the right time," he said.

"They're up and running and all their very best players have got good form and their fitness is very good so it's completely different to the last two, maybe three times we've played them."

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