While the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos secured the win and continued their dominance of conference A on Sunday, coach Scott Gowans believes the side got a lot more out of the victory than just the four points.
The four-point margin was North’s slimmest of the season so far.
“We just got through, we just got over the line,” Gowans said.
“It’s one of those games where we’ll bank the four points and take a lot of learnings out of it.
“Good sides always find a way to win. I think we did that today, but there’s a long way to go.”
Prior to the weekend’s match, North’s average winning margin was over 30 points, so having a match go down to the wire proved invaluable for the competition’s in-form side.
Trailing in the early stages of the fourth quarter, the Roos were able to regain the lead and maintain supremacy despite an onslaught from the Demons.
Gowans said steady heads were what got the side over the line in the clutches.
“I like what I saw at the end,” he said.
“I thought our composure was what got us through, it’s one of the things I spoke about during the game. Good sides do that.
“We’ve been on the road for three weeks, come back to our first game in Victoria, and with the pressure in that game, any side can fall away in that last quarter.
“The girls took a big breath and said ‘for 17 minutes, we’re going to battle this out’, and they did.
“They controlled the footy and the stats started going back our way. It’s probably what got us the four points in the end.”
A nail-biting finish like that came at the right time for North, which has a trifecta of difficult fixtures to round out the home and away season.
“Just to get a game ahead now is so vital, because we have a really hard test next week against Adelaide,” Gowans said.
“We’ve got to step it up again and we finish with Collingwood and then Fremantle over in Perth, so it doesn’t get any easier.
“It’s now just a matter of getting better at being adaptable.
“When we’re allowed to play our styles against opposition we go OK, but today was the test.
“We’re looking at how we can adapt now and play the style of footy that just wins you games of footy, and this was our first test.”
