North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos senior coach Darren Crocker has lauded his defensive unit after they withstood Geelong’s constant attacks in Saturday night’s epic two-point elimination final victory.

The Roos were clear winners in the contest (+8 hitouts, +7 contested possessions, +3 clearances), but the much-improved Cats side dominated the inside-50 count 41-18.

Crocker conceded his side got away with the win, but said "it was nice to get one back" having been on the wrong end of heartbreaking losses in recent years.

"Absolutely (we got away with it)," he said.

"But as I just said to the players, we've been probably on the wrong end of a few of those results as well, having controlled large parts of the game, especially the territory side of things. I suppose in a final, it was nice to get one back.

"To Geelong's credit, coming into the game, we knew they were a big improver, and we'd actually have to be right up to our best.

"Fortunately, parts of our game, I thought our contest was strong, our pressure was very good, but they (the Cats) would definitely feel disappointed they didn't come away with that win."

Crocker said his side's defensive efforts were what saved the nail-biting result at GMHBA Stadium.

"I thought every single one of our defenders had an impact on that game and had moments where they had to step up and save the team," he said.

"But also collectively as a group I thought we just defended really well.

"Probably when you’re under pressure like they were putting us under territory-wise, you can tend to fold back a little bit and get too many numbers behind the footy. But it worked out that in the end that might have been what saved us."

The Kangaroos coach said returning skipper Emma Kearney – who took a match-saving mark in the closing seconds – was never in any doubt of missing the game with knee soreness and he also confirmed there were no fresh injury concerns ahead of the semi-final with Richmond.

Both sides met in Round 10 with the match finishing in a draw, but Crocker believes that recent lesson will hold the Roos in good stead.

"We felt like there were parts of that game that we controlled and probably weren’t able to come away with the result we were after," he said.

"But it will be really good to come up against them having recently played them."