There was a lot of yelling going as North Melbourne held off Fremantle by 13 points in their AFL match at Etihad Stadium.

Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley gave his team an old-fashioned "bake" at quarter-time while his Dockers counterpart Mark Harvey was nursing a headache and a scratchy voice after the match.

Initially, Harvey only alluded to Fremantle's displeasure with the 19-9 free kick count that went against them.

"Sorry, I've lost my voice - there was a bit happening in the box today and not just from a rotation or a move point of view, by the way," Harvey said.

Later, when asked about the free kicks, he made his displeasure clear.

"I've got a headache - look, I've spoken to (umpires director) Jeff Gieschen on a number of occasions and we're working through that.

"I don't want to use that as an excuse (for losing) and I can't, but nine free kicks doesn't represent a lot of the hard work we had done.

"That's happened twice in the last three weeks."

Two free kicks were particularly costly - one against Chris Tarrant for an off-the-ball incident just before half-time, then a deliberate rushed behind by Steven Dodd in the third term.

The two frees resulted in North goals with the Dodd penalty sparking a decisive four-goal surge for the Kangaroos.

While Harvey might also yell down the phone to Gieschen on Monday, he acknowledged his players had not kept their composure after the Dodd free.

"That's what creates enormous debate in our game, but we've got to have the ability to over-ride that as a group," he said.

Fremantle came into this game with impressive momentum, having won three-straight and pushing Hawthorn last weekend.

But they are now 3-6 and have won only one of their last 11 games at Etihad Stadium.

While the free kick count went against them badly, they had 11 more inside 50s than North and won the hitouts 52-15.

In short, they had plenty of chances.

"Some of our players, the difference between their good and their bad is still too much at the moment," Harvey said.

"I've got to make them realise, what is the missing link in between?

"Otherwise, we rely on too few to win these games - once again, there was evidence of that today."

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