North will approach Saturday night’s Elimination Final with confidence from four sudden death wins in the last two years.
A thrilling comeback against Essendon in 2014 was followed by a nail-biter against Geelong in the semi-final, while in 2015 the vanquished opponents were Richmond, and then Sydney interstate.
Unsurprisingly, Ben Brown says his teammates are using it as inspiration.
“I think the sky’s the limit when you get to a finals series, any team can win on any given occasion,” Brown told the Herald Sun.
“It goes up a couple of levels and it really ekes out the good teams from the teams that aren’t quite there.
“We’ve had our finals experience the last two years and I think that will come into play this finals series and hopefully we can go all the way.”
With the North careers of Brent Harvey, Drew Petrie, Michael Firrito and Nick Dal Santo set to come to a close at the end of 2016, the focus of the group is arguably sharpened even further.
More than 1,300 games of experience and 70 finals are shared between the quartet, putting them in the best possible position to offer advice to the group.
“One of the things that they’ve all got in common is they all want to win a premiership, and it’s going to be their last year at the club, so it’s massive for us young guys and we know that,” Brown said.
“I’ve played in a finals series all three years that I’ve been at the club — we know that it doesn’t come around every day — so it’s pretty important that we make the most of that opportunity and the guys who are going to be leaving us have made that pretty clear.”
On an individual note for Brown, he’s experienced his best season thus far at AFL level. 41 goals in his 21 appearances means he’s all but taken out the club’s leading goal kicking award, barring any finals heroics from Harvey or Lindsay Thomas.
Although he shapes to be the leader of the forward line in 2017 and beyond, it’s the smaller focuses that are driving Brown.
“I’m just still trying to fit in with the group and make sure I’m not getting ahead of myself. I’m still trying to play my role in the forward line — as long as I do that the results will come,” the 23-year-old explained.
“Everything I’ve done since I got to the football club has been about just trying to take my opportunities.
“Whether that opportunity comes up to take a bit more of a role in the forward line or not, I’m just going to keep trying to play the best I can for the team.”
Five sleeps to go #ShareTheSpirit pic.twitter.com/VUD2xTafcI
— North Melbourne (@NMFCOfficial) September 4, 2016