WHILE there is a bigger prize at play over the next month, North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker said his side was able to take a moment to bask in the glory of what the Kangaroos had accomplished after notching up their 24th straight AFL Women’s victory. The most ever recorded through the men’s or women’s top flight competitions, Crocker said he was “proud” of the group, but now it was time to refocus.

“I spoke to the whole program, the players, about how proud I am of what we’ve been able to achieve not just this year, but over the last 24 months,” he said. “It’s been pretty special, but now that’s all done we finish in pole position and a new season starts and that now becomes really important and we’re really looking forward to it. We’re going to lean into it and really enjoy what’s to come.”

The latest result was a comprehensive 49-point win over Hawthorn which showed the gap between the Roos and the rest of the competition considering the Hawks entered the contest in second spot on the ladder. Despite the final result, a five-goal third quarter was where the Roos gapped the home team, and Crocker said the match was “really good preparation” for the finals series.

“Hawthorn’s pressure early in the game was really high, pressure in contest,” he said. “We did well to just to stick at the way we needed to play. “We changed a couple of things at quarter time just simplified a little bit for us, it’s a very narrow ground which I thought allowed us to get on top and wear them down.

“Our third quarter was outstanding and they really challenged again in the last quarter so I feel like it was a really good preparation for the next few weeks.”

Looking ahead to the finals series where the Roos will again play Hawthorn in the qualifying final, Crocker said it was about just playing to the Roos’ potential as the evidence suggests it will get the job done.

“I think we just spoke about that we know that our football at its best is well and truly good enough and we’ve shown that,” he said. “We’ve given ourselves enough evidence around that. We’ve now got real strong belief and trust in what we’re doing.

“Now its just lets keep enjoying it, keep enjoy this journey we’re on and the outcomes will look after themselves. That’s pretty much been the message all the way through and it will continue to be over the next month. Lean into it, really enjoy it, the opportunity is right in front of us to play our best football which is what we’ll be endeavouring to do.”

When asked about what the biggest challenge for the Roos was leading into a post-season series that could provide the minor premiers with a second straight flag, Crocker said it was how the side could handle the next month with every side looking to bring their best from the first bounce.

“We’ve know we’ve had a target on our backs probably for two years now,” he said. “So it’s not something that we take lightly, we know that teams are coming at us, even early in games again tonight. Hawthorn were really up for the occasion and that’s going to go to just another level over the next few weeks as well.

“But I think the biggest challenge is to ourselves and how we handle the next month of football. “I’ve got so much faith in this group and confidence that they’ll just attack it the way they’ve attacked the last 24 months. As I said we’ll continue to enjoy it, we’ll continue to try and bring our identity and bring our best football. We understand what that looks like and if we do that, we’re going to be an extremely hard team to beat.”

Hawthorn coach Daniel Webster said aside from the third quarter demolition he was “pretty happy” with his side’s performance, which speaks to the quality of the North Melbourne side.

“They’re obviously a very good side, I think that’s what stood out,” he said. “I was pretty happy with most of it outside of the third quarter. “They were clinical with their opportunities when they had it. We lost that quarter by 30 and lost the game by 49 so outside of that, I thought our pressure, our work rate was good.

“Basically the difference was the fundamentals, they’re just so clean and once they get it out in space, their ability to use the football is a lot superior to what ours was. As I said, I was pretty happy with a lot of our stuff and I think we’ll improve off the back of that.”