Sitting in seventh place, North was just one game inside the eight on 11 wins. Hawthorn was in 10th, on 10 wins. A Kangaroos' victory would essentially seal a finals berth after a disappointing 2001, while a loss would have them in danger of missing September action for a second consecutive year.
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32,393 travelled to the MCG to watch the encounter. Glenn Archer started forward, with Mick Martyn down back on future Roo Nathan Thompson and Leigh Colbert played on Nick Holland.
It was an even start to the game with Byron Pickett causing all sorts of trouble in the forward 50. Of North's four goals in the first term, Pickett had three.
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Unsurprisingly in a high scoring game, it was free-flowing. Halfway through the second term North had eight tackles for the entire game.
While it was a close first half, North was always responding to a Hawthorn run rather than creating the play itself. Just minutes before the long break, North trailed by 15-points. Two quick goals to Corey Jones and Mark Porter cut the deficit to just two at half time.
Holland had been a pain for the North defenders, breaking free from Colbert repeatedly. To start the second half, Denis Pagan swung a change, moving Archer back and Colbert forward.
However it was Hawthorn's midfield that claimed the ascendancy early in the third. When Shane Crawford ran into an open goal, the Hawks led by 21-points after kicking four of the first five goals for the term.
With the game slipping out of reach, North roared back. By the final break, the Kangaroos led by five points after kicking five of the last six goals.
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Brent Harvey had two of those majors and was proving to be a major influence on the game. Shannon Motlop was also a headache as a crumbing forward, kicking two for the quarter.
North begun the final term with six straight behinds as it looked to establish a match-winning break.
In the middle of the run of consecutive points, Crawford streamed through the centre square, looking to put Hawthorn in front. Out of nowhere, Mark Porter appeared and managed to chase down the midfielder, causing him to mistime his kick.
But despite the superb piece of play, the game still looked likely to go down to the wire. With less than four minutes to go, the margin was only three points in North's favour.
Ben Robbins then earned a free kick for a high tackle from Shaun Rehn and pumped the ball deep inside the forward 50.
Matthew Burton found space away from the back-tracking Rehn and marked deep in the pocket. He converted the resulting set shot to give North breathing space.
Just a minute later, Leigh Harding broke free from a throw in and had a flying shot on goal. Perhaps fittingly, arguably the toughest of his seven scoring shots for the night brought his first goal and North was headed to the 2002 finals.
North Melbourne 4.5.29, 8.8.56, 14.11.95, 17.17.119
Hawthorn 5.2.32, 9.4.58, 14.6.90, 16.8.104
Goals
North Melbourne: Pickett 4, Harvey 3, Motlop 2, Sinclair 2, Archer 1, Burton 1, Grant 1, Harding 1, Jones 1, Porter 1
Hawthorn: Holland 5, Brown 2, Hodge 2, Thompson 2, Chick 1, Crawford 1, Dixon 1, Lekkas 1, Rehn 1
Brownlow Medal
3 - Jess Sinclair (NM), 2 - Byron Pickett (NM), 1 - David Teague (NM)
