Despite North Melbourne’s final match of 2013 being a ‘dead rubber’, there was still plenty of interest in the game.

The match against Collingwood was the second highest rating game on free-to-air for Round 23 and the third highest for the entire round.

It continued a trend of North rating strongly for matches this season.

For 2013, the Kangaroos had nine matches on Channel 7, with the remaining 13 broadcast on Fox Footy.

Round 23 free-to-air ratings

986,651 – Sydney v Hawthorn
595,250 – Collingwood v North Melbourne
561,271 – Essendon v Richmond

Round 23 overall ratings

1,278,379 – Sydney v Hawthorn
798,111 – Essendon v Richmond
768,607 – Collingwood v North Melbourne