Brad Scott says North Melbourne is ready to confront last year's demons when it hits the road to face the Sydney Swans, following his side's 17-point elimination final triumph over Richmond.

For the second year in a row, the Roos advanced past a pressure-packed sudden death first final, overcoming the Tigers with a nine-goal-to-five second half in front of a frenzied crowd of 90,186 fans at the MCG on Sunday.

The victory sets up a semi-final showdown at ANZ Stadium, the venue North succumbed to the Swans in a 71-point preliminary final thrashing last year.

Speaking after his side dealt Richmond its third-straight elimination final defeat, Scott said the Kangaroos were confident of delivering a semi-final boilover against the undermanned Swans.

"Your experience always gives you a little bit of help and there's definitely more self-belief, because you only get self-belief from doing," Scott said.

"You don't know that you can win a final until you actually win one. Now that our group have won three of our last four finals, you couldn't say there's anything but more self-belief.

"But that doesn't get it done on the night, we're going to have to go up there and give a better account of ourselves than we did around about this time last year against a really good outfit - but we're up for the challenge.

"We didn't start planning a month ago just to try and get to the finals, we were planning about playing our best football in finals and hopefully that's ahead of us."

The Roos are a more mature group than last season, following the additions of recruits Jarrad Waite and Shaun Higgins, and their composure under pressure was telling against the Tigers.

When the contest was at its fiercest, North's veterans stepped up and led the way to a thrilling victory after trailing by 10 points at half-time.

"The combination of our missed chances and Richmond taking theirs really meant that it was a hard-fought affair and when things sometimes go against you, immature and inexperienced groups can drop away, but our guys held firm," Scott said.

Waite was superb early, booting three goals before the main break, and evergreen veteran Brent Harvey took the match by the scruff of the neck thereafter.

In his 407th game, Harvey finished with a game-high 31 touches and two majors, while Jack Ziebell, Andrew Swallow and Ben Cunnington wrestled the midfield advantage.

Ben Jacobs' tagging job on Trent Cotchin was also instrumental, keeping the Richmond skipper to just nine touches – the equal lowest of his career.

"He was outstanding. He was really good," Scott said.

"He's redefined the role he plays for us and his teammates just love him – they just love the role he plays for the team. He got the job done today on an outstanding player.

"Jarrad Waite probably played arguably his best game ever given the circumstances.

"Boomer just keeps doing it, (Nick Dal Santo's) second half was enormous, but you go through the list and a lot of guys stood up.

"At the end of the day it added up to the team's performance."

North clearly ran out the match better, although Scott was unsure what impact he thought resting nine stars last week had in the dying stages.

But he said regardless of Sunday's result, he wouldn't have changed his decision.

"I'm well aware that if we were sitting here on the wrong side of the result there would be criticism, but there shouldn't be platitudes either," he said.

"We just did what we thought was right for our players and for our club. There were a lot of people who want to have an opinion – and that's fine because we play an opinion-based game – but it doesn't faze me either way.

"I'm not about to say I told you so. If I was sitting here with Richmond the victor tonight, I still would've done the same thing last week."