THE North Melbourne Kangaroos warmed up for the AFL Women’s finals with a big 46-point win over the Western Bulldogs. It was a pretty clinical performance from the Kangaroos, who only conceded one goal for the game.

North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker said post-match that he was happy with how things had gone for his side and that he had got everything he wanted out of the game.

“Coming into today it’s always a little bit of a worry when you know that you’ve got finals coming up,” he said. “I know as a player myself, the eyes on the prize is probably beyond this, but you’ve still got a job to do right in front of your nose, and you can waver a little bit mentally in these situations.”

“But I thought to the most part the girls did pretty well to bring themselves into the present and do what they had to do to get the job done today, and get third spot and we’ll just see how the rest of the round plays out and who we end up playing.”

He also confirmed that he did throw the magnets around a little bit to try a few of his players in new positions.

“You would have noticed even pushing an Erika O’Shea forward late in the game to see what that looks like to get some speed ahead of the ball,” Crocker said. “We put Bella Eddey up on a wing, Tess Craven played wing and half-back, so we did throw the magnets around more than usual just to give the players a little bit of exposure to different roles with the next few weeks in mind.”

Crocker also said that he was happy with how the team was at heading into finals and that the team was well placed ahead of another finals campaign.  

“I do feel well placed and our program is well placed,” he said. “No major injuries, everyone got through again today which is good. I feel like we’re fitter than we were this time last year, our system is holding up better.

“I think we have another year on, they’re understanding the system and what our identity looks like, and understanding what needs to happen to get the game looking like a North Melbourne game more often. I feel like we’re in a pretty good position going into finals.”

North Melbourne will take on Melbourne in a qualifying final next week with the loser likely to play one of Geelong or Essendon and the winner moving through to a home preliminary final.