2 weeks Ago By Roy Ward, Hannah Kennelly
North Melbourne’s Libby Birch has the chance to achieve something no male or female player in AFL history has accomplished. If the Roos win Saturday night’s AFLW grand final against the Brisbane Lions at a sold-out Ikon Park, Birch will etch her name into the league’s record books as the first player to win three flags at three different clubs. Libby Birch is aiming for flag No.
3 on Saturday. Credit: Joe Armao “I would never have dreamed to play footy, let alone being a part of potentially three teams that achieved the ultimate success,” the former Demon and Bulldog said. “When you get a little older like I am .
.. you tend to appreciate getting to these moments a lot more and how much it actually takes to get there .
.. the staff, the team, the moment, everything accumulates to getting here.
” Click here to read the story. North Melbourne men’s star Harry Sheezel gave several fans some joy on the way into the ground this evening. The Age entered behind the midfielder who stopped several times for selfies with fans, including with a fan ahead of him in the security line.
Roos star Harry Sheezel. Credit: Getty Images A couple of young girls screamed after taking their pic with him and the security person at the door had a smile as he scanned Sheezel upon entry. Roos fans will be hoping they have plenty more to get excited about later this evening.
The gates to Ikon Park are open and a flood of raincoat-clad fans have excitedly streamed in. It’s set to be a pretty muggy night and there are brightly coloured ponchos around the sold-out stadium. Sebastian Finnegan and Tom Davis are best mates but supporting rival teams tonight.
Credit: Hannah Kennelly Sebastian Finnegan and Tom Davis are best mates and house mates, but the duo are supporting rival teams tonight. Sebastian’s family are die-hard North supporters while Tom hails from Fitzroy and is supporting the reigning premiers. “I’ve grown up supporting Brisbane my whole life,” Tom explained.
“The men’s team got the premiership this year...
so we’re hoping to do the double and get the win tonight.” Tonight is Tom and Sebastian’s first AFLW grand final and they’re both confident their team will win the flag. “North should win, they haven’t lost this year, so I’m feeling fairly confident,” Sebastian said.
“But you never know, it’s grand final day, so anything can happen.” Sebastian hoped best-on-ground would be North’s midfielder Jasmine Garner, describing her as a star. North Melbourne just want AFLW glory - not grand final redemption or post-season revenge against Brisbane.
The Kangaroos return to the grand final stage at Ikon Park on Saturday in a rematch of the 2023 decider against Brisbane. A Roos fan waves a flag before the preliminary final win over Port Adelaide. Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images Last year’s opportunity to become North Melbourne’s first premiership team this century ended in heartbreak, with the Lions snatching their second flag by 17 points.
It was also North’s first appearance in any decider since the men’s team won the 1999 flag, piling more anguish on the club’s long-suffering fans. Now, less than 12 months on, coach Darren Crocker has deemed the pain irrelevant. “We haven’t really spoken about last year at all,” Crocker said on Friday.
“People like to use the word redemption and that type of thing. For us, it was all about just how we learn, how we get better.” North Melbourne skipper Emma Kearney doubled down on Crocker’s sentiments.
“We’re not a team that play on emotion,” she said. “If you don’t have enough motivation in the grand final then you shouldn’t be there.” The Kangaroos enter their second grand final the clear favourites after an undefeated season, their only blemish being a draw with Geelong in round two.
They sounded an ominous warning in the opening round with a cutthroat performance - defeating the reigning premiers by 44 points after kicking six goals to none in the third term. “We’d never beaten Brisbane up until that point,” Kearney said. “This season I feel like we belong here, just like Brisbane belong here.
“Last time, not that I was surprised that we made the grand final but we were sort of riding the wave of this momentum, knocking off Melbourne, then Adelaide in the preliminary by a point. “That confidence is a lot different compared to what it was last year.” AAP Brisbane Lions coach Craig Starcevich admits he has tossed and turned about their round-one defeat as they prepare for a record sixth AFLW grand final appearance.
If Brisbane are to become the first team to claim back-to-back flags, they will have to withstand and nullify North’s threats across all lines. Brisbane Lions AFLW coach Craig Starcevich. Credit: Getty Images Star goal-kicking midfield duo Jasmine Garner and Ash Riddell are certain to cause mayhem for the Lions, while Kate Shierlaw leads in attack and Kearney in defence.
“We got a good lesson early in the year, didn’t we?” Starcevich said. “There was a fair few things in the first time we played each other this season that we needed to get to work on and I reckon we’ve steadily got better. “There’s some decent resilience within the group to keep fighting.
That’s something that our team’s pretty proud of. “We’ve got some fight and grit about us, although we didn’t show it in round one, so that’s sort of not us.” Both teams will take unchanged teams into the grand final, with North winger Tess Craven overcoming a back complaint sustained in their preliminary-final win over Port Adelaide.
AAP G’day everyone and welcome to tonight’s AFLW grand final blog. I’m Roy Ward and I’ll be tapping the keys as North Melbourne and Brisbane face off at IKON Park to be named the 2024 AFLW premiers. First bounce is set for 7.
45pm AEDT, enjoy the coverage to come..
