12 months ago, North Melbourne finished season 2024 with an embarrassing, grim 124-point loss to Hawthorn, to conclude another three-win, sub 65-percent year.

On Saturday afternoon, after a 2025 of slow, steady, occasionally frustrating but ultimately inevitable improvement, the Kangaroos took on minor premiers and flag favourites Adelaide … and beat them on expected score.

From start to finish, North took the fight right up to the best team in the land, Izak Rankine or no, ensuring the Crows’ top spot-securing 13-point win was made as difficult as possible, forcing a superior outfit to fight right to the end.

On the surface, it seems like damning with faint praise, especially given the Roos once again conceded a score above 100, and never looked remotely like winning the game.

But while 2025 yields just 10 more premiership points and an extra 13 per cent, plus a single spot elevated on the ladder up to 16th, there’s not a North fan who wouldn’t be at least partially gladdened by their performance at Marvel Stadium.

It was a display that, after half a decade of generational doom and gloom, lets you see a bit of light for a future that might be closer than you think.

There are signs of a game plan now – and, more importantly, a group of players good enough to execute on it.

North Melbourne have had key strengths all year long – most notably an excellent record at winning clearances – but this was the first time against quality opposition where that has felt significant, and not mitigated by weaknesses everywhere else.

This year, North have won the clearance count 15 times, but only against Richmond, Essendon and Fremantle before Saturday afternoon had that resulted in more inside 50s than their opposition. The Roos’ forward line has talent, but it has proven difficult for them to get sufficient looks – and meanwhile, only West Coast have conceded more inside 50s than them this season.

The former against the Crows was addressed with far more intent to move the ball forward, mostly from clearances – bursting out the front of stoppages and driving the ball forward with intent and a bit of dare was crucial to their four-goal burst in the final quarter to give Adelaide something to worry about.

This handball from Luke Parker is a textbook example: for most of the year, a North player winning the footy in that position would dish quickly to either Harry Sheezel or Bailey Scott – the former running into pressure, the latter from a stationary position where the best they can hope for is a hacked kick forward.

But with a free option 20 metres further afield, Parker’s long handball means the kick inside 50 gets within 40 metres from goal, rather than in the 50-70 range – it’s harder to defend, and leaves space all around. Once Mark Keane is unable to take the intercept mark, Luke Davies-Uniacke can gather within scoring range.

It doesn’t seem like much – but for a team that averages the second-fewest metres gained per disposal of anyone per season, it’s a significant mindset change.

This is a midfield good enough and powerful enough to be a force at stoppages for many years to come – Tristan Xerri has claims on being the best pure ruckman in the game, while George Wardlaw’s brutal toughness (his 29 pressure acts on Saturday were a game high) perfectly complements the explosive pace of Luke Davies-Uniacke and sublime skills of Harry Sheezel. Throw in Parker’s wisdom and experience to guide the group through another year or two, perhaps spending more time up forward in the process, and there’s a huge amount for Alastair Clarkson to work with.

The Roos’ 15 marks inside 50 as a result of that renewed drive forward is likewise well beyond their season average – only twice, against the Western Bulldogs in Opening Round and Richmond last week, have they exceeded it in 2025. Keep in mind as well that they achieved it without their two premier marking forwards in Nick Larkey and Cam Zurhaar.

Paul Curtis is a beauty – a double threat small forward who is more than capable overhead while dangerous at ground level is an invaluable commodity at the highest level. There’s more than a touch of Jamie Elliott about him, and with another three goals against the Crows to take his tally to 38 for the season, the 22-year old is a huge part of the Kangaroos’ future.

A more surprising late-season revelation – the sort of find that can prove season-changing the year after – is Cooper Trembath, who, having only joined North at the mid-season draft and broken into the senior team a fortnight ago, has done something no one in the 21st century has before in slotting three goals in each of his first three games.

There’s nothing complicated about Trembath: he leads hard at the footy, marks well overhead, and generally kicks the goals he’s expected to kick. At 19 years old, he’s not your typical mid-season recruit, and certainly far from the stop-gap option that Jack Darling has been this season.

With a full pre-season under his belt, and Larkey and Zurhaar in the side for Round 1 next year, that’s a dangerous forward line for anyone to grapple with. The proof? Well, 15 goals on the miserliest defence in the AFL this year should be all you need.

But this wasn’t just about all-out attack – having watched his team struggle mightily at stopping rivals from going end to end and piercing their flimsy defence, Clarko’s Roos had a renewed focus on pressure and intensity from start to finish against the Crows.

Beginning with a pressure rating of 219 in the first 15 minutes of the first quarter and seldom relenting from there, the Roos, bar the occasional bit of brilliance from the Crows, kept the ladder-leaders in a near-constant state of anxiety whenever the ball went inside 50.

Take this from Trembath to spark the Roos’ final-quarter comeback:

Most teams choose only to corral opponents this close to the goal line, because the simplest act from there is to take it through under pressure for a rushed behind. But taking the matra of pressure to the last inch to its fullest, Trembath not only goes for the tackle to shock Keane, but shows exceptional footy IQ to wrestle him back into play (albeit thanks to some score review controversy) and pin him holding the ball for a richly deserved goal.

Clarkson also made a noticeable tweak to his usual structure up forward: Aidan Corr, a defender all his life, was sent forward and tasked with keeping Keane, the AFL’s best interceptor, quiet.

The result? The star Crow mustered just two intercept marks for the day, had to scrap for every disposal, and finished with just 11 touches – his quietest day at the office for some time.

Quelling the opposition’s weapons hasn’t really been a thing for North Melbourne in years gone by, with the exception of the occasional tagging job on a running half-back. If that’s a sign of things to come, then perhaps Clarko’s Roos are about to become more tactically sophisticated in 2026, with a group of youngsters ready to take the next step in their development.

None of this means North will suddenly shoot up the ladder in 2026. Their defence remains well below standard – leaking 28 shots from 48 inside 50s isn’t an acceptable figure even against a forward line like the Crows’ – and short of headhunting a big name from another club, it isn’t easy to work out where improvement can come from in that regard.

But the doom and gloom that pervaded the atmosphere at this football club when Geelong pummelled them by the year’s only triple-figure margin to date has now cleared. Since that night, a team that looked utterly rudderless, bereft of ideas and woefully wretched in just about every facet has clawed plenty of pride back.

A pass mark for next season? Maybe eight wins, maybe higher with a favourable draw – unlike the rest of the teams around them, it feels like they’ll be getting better while everyone else gets worse.

The weaker links are more noticeable on days like against the Crows where the standard elsewhere is so high – Griffin Logue is out of his depth, Jack Darling a warrior but pretty much finished, Jacob Konstanty a less-is-more player where a five-disposal game is better for the team than 15 – that it makes them easier to flush out.

Meanwhile, youngsters like Zac Banch as a pressure small, Finn O’Sullivan as a half-back with a sparkling kick on him, and of course, Trembath, give North something heading into 2026 they haven’t had for a decade: depth.

Nothing is certain in football. The silver lining on the cloud might be a plane on a collision course. The light at the end of the tunnel could just be a train hurtling at them.

But you know what? This is a hope business. And finishing a year having pushed the minor premiers all the way is a hell of a lot better than the 100-point belting that was North’s fate 12 months ago.

Maybe, just, maybe, we can look back on Round 24, 2025 as the beginning of something special.