North Melbourne Kangaroos beat Brisbane Lions to cap a perfect season for Emma Kearney, Jasmine Garner, Ash Riddell and Libby Birch; results from Ikon Park

Kearney may have talked the talk, but he has long walked the walk, too. This grand final was no different.

The Lions brought intense pressure in the first quarter, but the Kangaroos veteran was ready for the fight, making several bone-crunching tackles and holding strong against the early onslaught.

“I’m probably not the best tackler on the team, but when it’s your time to go, you’ve got to go,” he said.

Kearney, now 36, played like a football player who risks everything. But not for the last time; He said he would probably wander around again.

“There were a few girls who missed this year due to injury – Mia King, Nicole Bresnehan – and I told them, ‘Maybe this is a sign for me to stay here and do it again with them,'” she said.

“But I’m going to enjoy it and make my decision in the next few weeks.”

Kangaroos captain Jasmine Garner remembers Kearney’s situation on the beach after the 2023 Melbourne defeat.

“We can be a little nice sometimes,” Garner said after lifting the championship trophy.

“We just talked about, ‘Let’s be competitive and not let those big three teams (Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne) push us around and bully us.’ And we really embraced that.”

Garner, who had 26 disposals, four clearances and a goal in the win on Saturday night, said the Kangaroos playing group had promised to adopt a new mentality, they would no longer “fear the opposition”.

“We’re not the loudest group, but if we can deliver our best football, that’s a scary situation in itself,” Garner said.

“So we don’t have to say ‘Rah, rah, rah’ out loud. We just play our best football and it takes care of itself.”

North Melbourne weathered an early storm against the Lions, conceding the first goal in the opening minutes before scoring the next six goals.

The Lions had more inside the 50s – 38 to 33 – but they could not get past the solid North Melbourne defence, led by Libby Birch, Jasmine Ferguson, Erika O’Shea and Kearney.

Birch tonight became the competition’s first four-time major winner following previous flags with North (last year), Melbourne (2022) and the Western Bulldogs (2018).

The Kangaroos relied more on the ball. Amidst multiple tackles and tumbling attacks, they managed to handball a teammate’s back, allowing them to gain valuable ground on foot.

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Eilish Sheerin became the dominant midfielder with two important goals in the first half and was chosen as the best on the field. League medalist Ash Riddell started picking up the balls after the opening period and set a grand final record with 38 disposals at the final siren.

“I think the game kind of opened up the back end and was more like a North Melbourne football game,” Riddell said.

Sheerin, who moved to the Roos from Richmond in the trade window last year, said it was his first grand final win at any level and credited his outstanding play with unique credentials.

“Hyperbaric oxygen chambers – I literally came straight to the ball,” Sheerin said with a laugh.

“At my age [33]I’m looking for the 1 percent I can get. I know he did that for Lachie Neale’s injury. Red light therapy and oxygen rooms; “I got in the car and it was great.”

North junior forward Jenna Bruton finished the game as the leading goaltender with three points. Isabel Dawes drew attention with 31 balls for Brisbane.

If Kearney’s exciting call to arms in 2023 got the ball rolling for this all-conquering North Melbourne side, it was coach Darren Crocker who kept the team focused throughout their 29-game unbeaten run, including last year’s second-round draw against Geelong.

“This is coming to ‘Crock,'” Riddell said. “His philosophy was ‘Enjoy the journey’ and it was like that every week.

“We didn’t really care about streaking because streaks don’t mean anything if you don’t win streaks.

“So it was really important that we stayed true to our identity and our trademark of football, and ‘Crock’ was a real driver of that.”

The turning point in Saturday night’s game came early in the second quarter when veteran Lion Shannon Campbell inexplicably awarded back-to-back 50-yard penalties; it was a brainwash that dragged North’s Kate Shierlaw from the back wing to the right front of goal.

He grabbed the shot that gave the Roos a 10-point lead and valuable momentum. They then scored the next two goals of the game to take a 22-point lead at half-time.

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“Obviously I got the signal and then we both went down, then there was a bit of an altercation and then he pushed me aside,” Shierlaw said after the match.

“I thought I would just try to milk it and he wouldn’t go so I kept running and the referee kept yelling.

“It was a bit of a momentum changer. I think our team thrives on that kind of thing and it was really important for us to dominate.”

Crocker acknowledged his team’s two-year lead in the post-match press conference.

“The pleasing thing at the moment is we’re probably a bit ahead, so there’s a few teams that need to catch up with us in terms of how we carry on our football,” he said.

“It’s great to be the one setting the standards, and it’s now up to others to take things from the bottom up.

“[There’s] No mention of three-peat. We joked on the podium that we weren’t allowed to say those words in a row this season. “We can do it now.”

Lions coach Craig Starcevich stated that his team suffered a serious defeat on the night and said that the Kangaroos were “attainable”.

“I thought our form was on the upswing and we were ready for the challenge,” he said after the game.

“You look at them tonight and say it’s pretty level, but nobody’s getting any younger, things happen, things change and the sides are catching up.”

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