North Melbourne just want AFLW glory – not grand final redemption or post-season revenge against Brisbane.
The Kangaroos return to the grand final stage at Ikon Park on Saturday in a rematch of the 2023 decider against Brisbane.
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Last year’s opportunity to become North Melbourne’s first premiership team this century ended in heartbreak, with the Lions snatching their second flag by 17 points.
It was also North’s first appearance in any decider since the men’s team won the 1999 flag, piling more anguish on the club’s long-suffering fans.
Now, less than 12 months on, coach Darren Crocker has deemed the pain irrelevant.
“We haven’t really spoken about last year at all,” Crocker said on Friday.
“People like to use the word redemption and that type of thing. For us, it was all about just how we learn, how we get better.”
North Melbourne skipper Emma Kearney doubled down on Crocker’s sentiments.
“We’re not a team that play on emotion,” she said.
“If you don’t have enough motivation in the grand final then you shouldn’t be there.”
Crocker’s Lions counterpart Craig Starcevich admits he has tossed and turned about their round-one defeat as they prepare for a record sixth AFLW grand final appearance.
If Brisbane are to become the first team to claim back-to-back flags, they will have to withstand and nullify North’s threats across all lines.
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Star goal-kicking midfield duo Jasmine Garner and Ash Riddell are certain to cause mayhem for the Lions, while Kate Shierlaw leads in attack and Kearney in defence.
“We got a good lesson early in the year, didn’t we?” Starcevich said.
“There was a fair few things in the first time we played each other this season that we needed to get to work on and I reckon we’ve steadily got better.
“There’s some decent resilience within the group to keep fighting. That’s something that our team’s pretty proud of.
“We’ve got some fight and grit about us, although we didn’t show it in round one, so that’s sort of not us.”
Both teams will take unchanged teams into the grand final, with North winger Tess Craven overcoming a back complaint sustained in their preliminary-final win over Port Adelaide.