{"id":318606,"date":"2025-11-30T13:07:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/318606\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T13:07:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:07:18","slug":"north-melbourne-aflw-coach-darren-crocker-and-brisbane-lions-coach-craig-starcevich-following-kangaroos-premiership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/318606\/","title":{"rendered":"North Melbourne AFLW coach Darren Crocker and Brisbane Lions coach Craig Starcevich following Kangaroos premiership"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Melbourne<\/a> coach Darren Crocker has a simple message for the rest of the AFLW<\/a> competition – catch us if you can.<\/p>\n

It comes after the club’s 27th straight victory over Brisbane<\/a> on Saturday night resulted in a second straight premiership<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Roos have not lost since the 2023 grand final and have truly become an unbeatable force. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: V’landys lifts lid on Haas meeting after R360 links<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Dominant Piastri’s ‘mega’ statement in Qatar<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Injury-plagued England quick’s grim Ashes setback<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking after the win, Crocker said they have work to do to maintain their excellence, but know they are the benchmark.<\/p>\n

\"Darren<\/p>\n

Darren Crocker, Jasmine Garner and Nicole Bresnehan of the Kangaroos lift the premiership cup\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“We will look at where the game is going and try to stay ahead of the curve,” Crocker said post match.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“It’s great to be the standard setters, and now it is for others to raise things from the bottom up.”<\/p>\n

North Melbourne dominated in the 40-point win over Brisbane and never looked like losing. Trailing at three quarter time of the preliminary final against Melbourne was ultimately as close as anybody came to beating them.<\/p>\n

“[There’s] no talking about a three-peat,” Crocker added<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

\"Isabel<\/p>\n

Isabel Dawes and Lily Postlethwaite of the Lions look dejected after losing the AFLW Grand Final.\u00a0via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich, who has led his team to seven grand finals since 2017 for just two wins, was clearly frustrated post-match.<\/p>\n

“Everyone is gettable,” Starcevich said.<\/p>\n

“I thought our form line was on the rise and we were ready to challenge.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

He also lamented careless errors that piled up as the grand final slipped out of reach.<\/p>\n

“Watching the game back is going to be painful viewing for a couple of them because there were some monumental blunders along the way, with giving away 50-metre penalties,” Starcevich said.<\/p>\n

“But that happens in a footy person’s career. Our people are great people, and they will absorb it. That’s just life as a footballer.”<\/p>\n

\"Emma<\/p>\n

Emma Kearney celebrates with teammates.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

North Melbourne star Emma Kearney is now the most decorated star in AFLW history.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old won her third premiership on Saturday night, to go with her league best and fairest award in 2018, seven All-Australian blazers and two club best and fairests at the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

Speaking with AFL Media after the game, Kearney said she wasn’t yet ready to hang up the boots. <\/p>\n

“Hopefully I’ll sign on,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I love playing footy, I just feel like I can contribute at the level, and I love doing it.<\/p>\n

“You’re a long time retired.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Melbourne coach Darren Crocker has a simple message for the rest of the AFLW competition – catch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-318606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}