They may not meet during the home and away season, but the second-placed Demons are already preparing to meet the Kangaroos in finals

Kate Hore celebrates a goal during round eight, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos

WHO CAN defeat North Melbourne? It’s the question echoing around the entire footy world as the Kangaroos despatch with every adversary that comes their way.

With perennial contenders Brisbane and Adelaide performing far behind the Roos’ blistering pace this year, all hopes rest on Melbourne, the team currently sitting in second place on the ladder.

And despite not playing against the Roos in the home and away season, the Demons are already preparing for a finals face-off.

While not losing sight of the match-ups immediately in front of them, members of the Dees’ coaching staff are busy in the background formulating a strategy for when the two sides meet.

“Thankfully, with the staff and the coaching team we’ve got, we’re able to cast our mind to potential opponents down the track,” Melbourne senior coach Mick Stinear said on Friday night following his side’s 14-point win over Essendon.

“[They’re] tracking some of the best teams in the comp, how are they playing, what are they doing well, so I haven’t to cast my mind to it too much, but we’ve definitely got people in our team that are thinking that way and are preparing us for what might lie ahead.”

With 18 teams and only 12 rounds in the home and away season, not every team plays against each other.

After missing finals last year, the Dees’ 2025 draw has them avoiding current top-eight sides Adelaide, Carlton and Hawthorn as well as the Roos. 

But despite the relatively easy draw, the Demons have had a far from an unblemished run in 2025.

They avoided a loss by the skin of their teeth (or some Kate Hore heroics) against last year’s wooden spooners Collingwood in round three, and a slow start cost them dearly against Port Adelaide in round five.

Even Friday night’s win against the 3-5 Bombers wasn’t an easy kill, with Stinear visibly on edge during the final quarter, commenting after the game that it was one that nearly got away. 

At their best, the Demons are highly skilled and move the ball with ease, with plenty of dangerous tall forwards that love to fly for a mark.

But they’ve struggled with player availability over the past few seasons and rarely have their best side taking to the park.

While cognisant a date with the Roos is on the horizon, the Dees are well aware they have plenty of work to do if they want to match it with the best. 

“We’d love to keep working towards a competition where we all play each other once,” Stinear said.

“But for now, we’ve got some good challenges; we’re off to Freo next week, we lost that game last year, they’ve really started to step up, I thought they competed really well [on Thursday] night in tough conditions.

“Moving forward it would be nice to play everyone and you get that experience, but for now we think we’ve got enough quality challenges ahead of us and hopefully if we can continue to win and give ourselves a chance to be playing and competing in finals.

“Games like tonight, we’ve still got to work on our game style and improve and put us in a position where we can compete and really push teams like North.”