North Melbourne's VFLW season has come to end after the Kangaroos lost to Collingwood in the closing round at Arden Street Oval on Saturday afternoon.

Wins to Essendon and Carlton earlier in the day made the Kangaroos' chances of jumping into the top six slim before taking the field today, with a sizeable win over the Magpies being their ticket to the finals.

However, it was the visitors who proved too powerful, triumphing by 33 points, 8.8 (56) to 3.5 (23) off the back of Monique De Matteo's four-goal performance.

Under light showers, the Pies opened the scoring three minutes into the first quarter through Georgia Ricardo after she was brought forward 50 metres due to a protected zone infringement.

The momentum quickly swung North Melbourne's way after Ricardo's major, though, with inside 50s stacking up for the home side thanks to some clean work from Ash Melnikas behind the ball and Madisen Maguire at half-forward.

KANGAROOS v MAGPIES Full match coverage and stats

The Roos continued to have more of the ball in the second term, but despite finding some good movement out of stoppages, it was Matilda Zander who snagged one for the Pies.

A couple of outstanding defensive efforts from Audrey Rhodes prevented Collingwood from doing any more damage heading into half-time, with the score sitting at 3-16.

A De Matteo major five minutes into the third term pushed the visitors lead out to 20 points, but moments later Rhodes broke through for the Roos as she got on the end of a Jess Nursey handball and made no mistake from close range.

Building confidence, Zara Flanigan snuck a quick kick out of a forward-50 stoppage for North Melbourne's second, before tapping the ball directly down to a hurtling Rhodes who finished coolly for the team's third.

It was all Collingwood from then onwards however, with De Matteo and fellow forward Nyakoat Dojiok combining for four final-quarter goals to North Melbourne's one behind. 

Winger Jess Mourney capped off her campaign with a game-high 23 disposals, while Jess Jones battled hard in the ruck against Sarah King and Renee Caris to come away with 29 hitouts and 17 possessions.

"Obviously we're really disappointed," North Melbourne VFLW coach Steph Binder told NMFC Media post-game.

"We knew the task ahead of us was really big if we wanted to make finals, but regardless of finals we wanted to go out on a high so we spoke about (playing) all or nothing footy. It didn't quite come off in the first half and in the second half we challenged a lot better, but it just wasn't enough."

Despite the result, Binder was happy that co-vice-captain Brooke Slaney and club debutant Paige Ryan were both able to feature for the club in 2023 after recovering from long-term injuries.

"It was awesome (having them back)," she said.

"Brooke is such a special person and she's always the first person to look out for everyone else even though she's been in rehab all year so it was great to have her back out on the field.

"Paige has showed so much resilience for such a young person and she's worked so hard in the gym. Considering how young she is, she's just so strong and attacks the rehab like an absolute beast, so it's great to have her on the park, too."

Although her side won't play a part in this year's finals series, Binder said the players can still "look back fondly" on 2023 as they soon start to build momentum back up again for next season.

"I think for us it has always been about our connection and playing as a team. We've really showed what we're capable of over the past few weeks when we play a united brand (of football)," she said.

NORTH MELBOURNE     0.0    0.3    3.4    3.5  (23)     
COLLINGWOOD             1.1    2.4    4.5    8.8  (56)     

GOALS
North Melbourne: Rhodes 2, Flanigan
Collingwood: De Matteo 4, Dojiok 2, Zander, Ricardo

BEST  
North Melbourne: Scott, Mourney, Rhodes, Jones, Fitzgerald