North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos senior coach Darren Crocker has praised his group after its heartbreaking 17-point preliminary final loss to Melbourne on Saturday.

The Roos managed to become a final-four side in Season 7 despite finishing the home and away season eighth on the ladder, but they couldn't quite seal a maiden Grand Final appearance.

While it was an unfavourable way to end the campaign, it didn't refrain Crocker from expressing his appreciation for how far the team came.

"I'm pretty proud of our program and the players and what they've been able to achieve," Crocker said.

"I think we've come a long way even from Season 6, which was really only just at the start of this year to now Season 7.

"I feel like we've tightened the gap up between ourselves and the other three, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane."

North Melbourne got off to a hot start at Ikon Park thanks to a deft bit of attacking play from Tahlia Randall, but it wasn't able to make the most of its ensuing forward line pressure.

Crocker's side ended the final with 10 more inside 50s on the board than Melbourne (36-26) and registered 18 tackles inside 50 throughout the third quarter, however, generating decent scoring attempts was a strenuous task.

Despite the tactical struggle between the two sides that had spanned over the first three quarters, it was the Demons who gained the momentum and created a match-sealing buffer in the final term.

"There's been a bit of a trend in the games against Melbourne that have lent itself to the fact that when they've got momentum, you know, they got a little bit of momentum in the last quarter and were able to put some scoreboard pressure on," Crocker mentioned.

"We obviously had all the momentum in that third quarter and just couldn't put any scoreboard pressure on, just couldn't find a way to score ... but I just thought that when they had the momentum, they made the most of it, and when we did, we couldn't make the most of it on the scoreboard."

Now at season's end, Crocker touched on what the next step is for himself and the rest of the team.

"We'll go to work at the work time at the right time, review the season, have a look at all the aspect and pillars of the way we want to play, and make any tweaks we can make to bridge that tiny little gap (between North and Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne)," he said.