‘We needed some mongrel’: The harsh moment that led to back-to-back Kangaroo flags

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Kearney might have talked the talk, but for a long time she has also walked the walk. She was no different in this grand final.

The Lions served up intense pressure in the first quarter, but the Kangaroos veteran was up for the fight, laying several bone-crunching tackles and standing strong against an early onslaught.

“I’m probably not the best tackler in the team, but when it’s your time to go, you just have to go,” she said.

Kearney, now 36, played like a footballer who was laying it all on the line. But not for the final time – she said she was likely to go around again.

“There were a few girls who missed out this year from injury – Mia King, Nicole Bresnehan – and I did say to them, ‘Maybe that’s my cue to stick around and hopefully do it all again with them’,” she said.

“But I’ll just enjoy this one and make my decision in the next couple of weeks.”

Kangaroos captain Jasmine Garner remembers Kearney’s line-in-the-sand moment after the 2023 Melbourne defeat.

Jasmine Garner, Kate Shierlaw and North Melbourne capped off the perfect season in 2025.

“Sometimes we could be a bit nice,” Garner said after lifting the premiership cup.

“We just spoke about, like, ‘Let’s get competitive and let’s 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 kicked a goal in Saturday night’s win, said the Kangaroos playing group vowed to embrace a new mindset – they would no longer be “intimidated by the opposition”.

“We’re not the loudest group, but we know if we can bring our best footy, that’s intimidating in itself,” Garner said.

“So we don’t have to be loud and all, ‘Rah, rah, rah’. We just play our best footy, and it looks after itself.”

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

Erika O’Shea and Ruby Svarc compete for possession.

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

Birch became the competition’s first four-time premiership player on the night after previous flags with North (last year), Melbourne (2022) and the Western Bulldogs (2018).

Eilish Sheerin reacts after being named as the best on ground in the grand final.

The Kangaroos were more sure with the ball. In the midst of multiple tackles and rolling scrums, they were able to flick handballs out the back to a teammate that then allowed them to gain valuable ground by foot.

Eilish Sheerin was the dominant midfielder in the first half with two crucial goals, and was named best on ground, while league medallist Ash Riddell started amassing possessions after the opening term and finished with a grand final record of 38 disposals by the final siren.

“I think the game sort of opened up towards the back end, and it was more of a North Melbourne game of footy,” Riddell said.

Sheerin, who moved to the Roos from Richmond during trade period last year, revealed it was her first grand final win at any level, and she credited a unique build-up for her outstanding game.

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

“At my age [33], I look for any 1 per cent that I can get. I know Lachie Neale did it for his injury. Red light therapy and oxygen chambers – I jumped on board, and it’s been great.”

North small forward Jenna Bruton finished as the game’s leading goalkicker with three. For Brisbane, Isabel Dawes was a standout with 31 possessions.

If Kearney’s rousing call to arms in 2023 set the ball rolling for this all-conquering North Melbourne outfit, it was coach Darren Crocker who kept the team focused during their winning streak – an unbeaten run of 29 games, counting a draw against Geelong in round two last year.

Craig Starcevich has won two premierships as Lions AFLW coach, but lost five grand finals.

“It comes down to ‘Crock’,” Riddell said. “His philosophy is, ‘Enjoy the journey’, and that was week by week.

“We didn’t really care about the streak because the streak of games means nothing if you don’t win the premiership.

“So it was really important that we just stuck to our identity and our trademark footy, and ‘Crock’ was a real driver of that.”

The turning point Saturday night’s game came early in the second quarter when veteran Lion Shannon Campbell inexplicably gave away back-to-back 50-metre penalties, a brain fade that took North’s Kate Shierlaw from the back flank to right in front of goal.

She nailed the shot, which gave the Roos a 10-point lead and valuable momentum. They then kicked the next two goals of the game to lead by 22 points at half-time.

“I obviously took the mark, and then we both went to ground, and then there was a bit of a tussle, and then she pushed me over,” Shierlaw said after the game.

“I just thought I’d try to milk it, and she didn’t go away, so I just kept running, and the umpire kept calling it.

“It was a bit of a momentum-shifter. I think our team feeds off that sort of stuff, and, for us to get the upper hand, it was really important.”

Crocker acknowledged his side’s two-year dominance during the post-game press conference.

“The pleasing thing at the moment is we’re probably a little bit ahead of the curve, so there are a few teams that need to catch us with how we go about our football,” he said.

“It’s great to be the standard-setters, and now it is for others to raise things from the bottom up.

“[There’s] no talking about a three-peat. We joked on the dais at the end about how we weren’t allowed to mention the words back-to-back this season. Now we can.”

While his side was soundly beaten on the night, Lions coach Craig Starcevich said the Kangaroos were “gettable”.

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

“You look at them tonight, and you say that is quite the level – but no one gets any younger, things happen, things change and sides catch up.”

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