North Melbourne coach Brad Scott wants an embarrassing thrashing at the hands of St Kilda to be the catalyst for the Kangaroos' AFL resurgence.

Scott labelled North's performance in Saturday night's 104-point defeat at Etihad Stadium unacceptable and although it came in just his second game in charge, he made it clear he would not stand for repeats.

North did not score in the first quarter and had to wait until the 18th minute of the second quarter before Corey Jones kicked the side's first goal, by which stage the Saints had 10 on the board.

Scott said he was interested to see how the Kangaroos responded to the drubbing when they played West Coast at Etihad Stadium this Saturday, and was hopeful the defeat would prove significant for his club in the years to come.

"I'm going to be watching very closely to see how they respond because a lot of them haven't been in this situation before," he said after the 23.5 (143) to 6.3 (39) humbling.

"It's happened to very, very good sides.

"You look at the sides that have won premierships over the past five, six, seven years - every one of those sides has copped beltings at stages with the same players.

"We've got to turn things around very, very quickly and we've got full confidence in the direction we're headed. We just need everyone to get on board and keep the faith."

Scott was part of the Brisbane sides that copped their share of thrashings in 1998 yet improved to win three successive premierships from 2001-03.

He challenged the Kangaroos to make Saturday night's defeat a watershed moment.

"(It) can either be a blip on the radar and an aberration or it can be a defining moment for where we want to go as a club," he said.

"We'll find that out sooner rather than later."

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