NORTH Melbourne’s incredible 25-game winning streak was in grave danger at three quarter time, with the Roos on the ropes against a plucky Melbourne side, but Roos coach Darren Crocker could not have been more proud of how his side responded in the last as they came away with the 6.10 (46) to 5.6 (36) win.

“The last quarter was the way that we’d spoken about how we wanted the game to look right from the word go,” Crocker said. “But it took us a while to be able to build into that and get the game looking that way. Maybe Melbourne ran out of a bit of a steam, I know it’s a real benefit having the week off coming into a prelim. All credit to them though, they were very good today.”

Crocker was full of praise for his opposition mentor, describing him as a “really good coach” as well as the Dees’ coaching panel.

“They planned well, and it was a real challenging game for us,” he said. “They controlled the footy a little bit too much more than we would for our liking. Very hard to then pressure when they’re just controlling the footy, taking uncontested marks.

“They then also get some strong numbers back behind the footy so making it quite difficult when we were going inside forward 50 at times. Tahlia Randall verses two players, or Emma King and a number of players who were outnumbered for most of the game. It stifled the game a little bit, but gee the response at three quarter time was just so strong from our players.”

When asked about what Melbourne did that challenged the Roos more than other sides this season, Crocker said it was the Dees’ ball-winning and representation at the contest.

“They were definitely trying to control the footy a fair bit and it seemed like every quick kick that came out of a contest they had a number there,” he said. “But as I said, all credit to Melbourne, they planned well, they executed a pretty strong gameplan which challenged us but all credit to our players how they responded at three quarter time.”

Crocker said players often have a “bit of anxiety” going into preliminary finals given the carrot on the line for the winner, but all in all, he was thrilled with the game which he described as “great preparation” for next week’s grand final.

“Prelims are sometimes really hard games to get through because you know what’s on the end of a prelim win,” he said. “So you go in sometimes to a prelim with a bit of anxiety around trying to get through that game and make a grand final.

“Now we’ve made the grand final, players can feel a bit freer, enjoy the week and just go and really play without any hesitation or any doubt whatsoever. I think it was a really important game to get through, I’m glad we had that preparation and that game because I think it prepares us very well for whoever’s coming.”

Preliminary final inclusion Eilish Sheerin knew it would be a tough game and the players could feel it too, but as they always have, the Roos responded with a “backs-against-a-wall” final term effort.

“Melbourne’s a great team and we knew that they’d bring that heat,” she said. “They’ve also got really good ball movement so I think that made it hard to create pressure because they can use that ball and get it into an uncontested game so it probably the wasn’t the pressure that we wanted in those first three quarters, but I guess when your back’s against a wall you really step up and that’s what we did.”