NOT MANY would have tipped 17th placed Richmond to be within 17 points at the final change against a rampant North Melbourne side, but in the end, the ladder-leading Roos were simply too good notching up their 21st consecutive victory in the AFL Women’s competition.

The Kangaroos are often thrown a challenge early, and North was able to deal with the heat from the Tigers, keeping Richmond goalless in the first half. Despite that fact, the Kangaroos uncharacteristically struggled to score, and when Richmond was able to gain some momentum in the third term, some Tigers fans might have dared to dream.

But that dream soon just became a sense of déjà vu amongst the AFLW community as North put the foot down in the final term to come away with a six-goal victory. The 7.8 (50) to 2.2 (14) triumph marked North Melbourne’s 23rd game unbeaten – three away from Geelong’s all-time 26-game record in that element, with the same streak including 23 straight victories.

It essentially means if North Melbourne win its remaining three regular season matches to go unbeaten again, the Roos will hold the all-time consecutive victories record in either men’s or women’s, and only need a successful result in the qualifying final to then overtake the Cats in the unbeaten record stakes.

While North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker might also be feeling a sense of déjà vu given his side’s streak, he said the playing group was not buying into the hype of the streak, and instead had just “planned for Richmond’s best”.

“They’ve got some highly regarded players within that lineup and their last month of footy in particular the last two weeks, they pushed Brisbane for three quarters, beat Adelaide last week,” Crocker said. “We knew that we had a feeling for what was going to come, and they really challenged us early in the first quarter their contest was really strong, their hands around the contest, they got some really good territory on us, but it was really good the way the players responded after quarter time.”

When asked about what the messaging was and how they dealt with the pressure building of the streak’s history-making run, Crocker responded with “does it?” before adding that North Melbourne kept it “pretty even, pretty measured” no matter the result or circumstance.

“We don’t try and ride the highs of winning games, we’ll come together again on Monday night, look at what we did well, where we can continue to get better,” Crocker said. “I think that the group is really bought in and unbelievable in their approach to that.

“Let’s just look at how we can get better each time we come into the footy club, each time we go out on the paddock to train, and then to play games. “I think that’s the best way to approach it and we don’t look at how many wins in a row or when the next loss looks like it might come. We just keep on, keeping on and we feel that’s the best way to go about it.”

After not fielding a debutant during last year’s unbeaten season, the Roos are being forced to tap into their enviable depth due to injuries, and the coach said the season had been far from “smooth sailing” despite the winning run.

“Our depth has really been challenged this year unlike any other season that I’ve been in this space,” Crocker said. “Seems like we’ve lost players in the warmups, players during the week and from the outside it would look like it’s been pretty smooth sailing but it certainly hasn’t.

“There’s been a few bumps along the way, but what that has done has given some players a great opportunity to come in, sample what AFLW looks and feels like and then go away and work on areas of their game to also improve so that’s been good, it’s given us a really good opportunity at players in certain roles.”

Richmond coach Ryan Ferguson described the Roos as a “powerful team” and lamented not building on the momentum the Tigers had pieced together during the third term when they outscored North Melbourne in a rare achievement against the ladder-leading side.

“Highly competitive, there were moments that we didn’t take that could have put them under more pressure, there was moments that they took really well, there will be a lot to learn out of it,” Ferguson said. “If we play with that energy, that pressure, we’ll still keep looking to connect up a bit better. We didn’t quite connect up well enough today to put them under more scoreboard pressure.”