The North Melbourne coach had resisted saying ‘back to back’ until his side achieved the league first

Darren Crocker, Jasmine Garner and Nicole Bresnehan after the AFLW Grand Final between North Melbourne and Brisbane at Ikon Park, November 29, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

THE WORDS Darren Crocker has refused to utter all year were ‘back-to-back’.

At no point was North Melbourne going to get ahead of itself. Not on the 29-game undefeated streak (27 game winning streak), not when they recorded the highest score in an AFLW game, not when vice-captain Ash Riddell won the league Best and Fairest Award.

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But on the dais, after making history as the first AFLW program to win consecutive premierships, Crocker yelled the words.

“A little bit of a joke up on the dais at the end about, because we weren’t allowed to mention the words back-to-back,” Crocker said with a signature smile, still uncomfortably sticky from the Gatorade shower he’d received an hour earlier.

When asked about his feelings following the club’s breakthrough flag last year, the word was relief. This time around, that same word came to mind, but in a different way.

“It’s probably an even greater sense of relief,” Crocker admitted.

“You get to that sudden death stage, like we got to last week after being on this enormous streak that we’ve been on, which has been phenomenal, the program’s been so good, staying consistent, staying in the present, not looking too far forward, but one little slip up (and) we may not have made a Grand Final.

“And then today, I was just so pleased for the program because I just felt like we got what we actually deserved. We have been the best team for the last two years, and it would have been an absolute shame not to actually have won that Grand Final. But I know football, I’m a realist as well and I know that sometimes things don’t go your way. And you know, we (were) actually able to put a really strong performance out tonight and just really justify why we’re where we are.”

The decision for Crocker to step into the AFLW coaching role back in 2021 was a calculated one. Following a strong first two seasons in the league, North Melbourne felt the COVID squeeze and opted to move inaugural coach Scott Gowans on for the sake of someone working across both programs.

Crocker was the man, and he has taken the program from strength to strength, having seen Brisbane as the benchmark when it comes to strength and conditioning.

“Over the last few years Brisbane (were) the ones who were setting the example, or setting the standard with that. When I first came into the women’s space, and I knew that we needed to actually catch up to the way they went about their high-performance stuff,” Crocker explained.

“For me personally, I’ve come into this space, and I’ve always felt that the product could be improved a hell of a lot, with some really good coaching, with some high performance being where it needs to be with the resourcing within your program. 

“And I think we’re actually seeing the benefits of that. I think the product’s… improving and looking pretty good. So, let’s keep trying to lift or raise those standards, keep improving, keep getting better, and yeah, hopefully we can draft a few with us.”