It was the perfect reception for a side preparing for its first finals campaign in four years with more than 500 fans lining the boundary at Perth’s Leederville Oval to watch North’s last training session.

The players were greeted by a round of applause and then prepared for the do-or-die clash against the Eagles.

“Whenever we’ve come to Perth we’ve always had tremendous support from the North Melbourne people,” North assistant Darren Crocker said.

“We’ve had a lot of players, great champions of North Melbourne that have come across the Nullarbor and played for the club so maybe that’s what grown the support over the years, but we’ve always had tremendous support over here.”

In fact, Jimmy Krakouer and Barry Cable were in the stands.

It was a light session, but coach Brad Scott would have been delighted to see the likes of Nathan Grima, Lachlan Hansen and Daniel Wells moving freely across the ground.

The session lasted only an hour with the sunshine providing a taste of what the Kangaroos’ players can expect at Patersons Stadium on Sunday with temperatures of 27 degrees forecast.

Back at the team’s hotel the players jumped in the pool before relaxing for the afternoon.