NORTH Melbourne coach Darren Crocker is hopeful inspirational captain Emma Kearney will be fit to play in the preliminary final after an extra week's break.
Kearney, who injured her hamstring in the Kangaroos' week five match against Richmond, narrowly missed out on Friday night's win over Adelaide, but Crocker was pretty confident his skipper will be available for their next game.
KANGAROOS v CROWS Full match coverage and stats
"She was pretty close (to playing tonight), she ticked off a really good session during the week," Crocker said after the match.
"It was more about her loads. We hadn't got her loads up to where they needed to be to come into a high-pressure final.
"Now, having got through that game, and having two weeks, she'll be able to get two really good weeks of load into her hamstring, into her body.
"We would think she would be very much available for the prelim."
Crocker praised his side's maturity in their come-from-behind victory against the Crows, saying it has been an area that his players have been working on since he took over as coach.
North went into the half-time break trailing by five points, only to turn it around in the second half and eventually walk away seven-point winners.
"It's been an area of growth for a number of years now," said Crocker.
"I don't know if in the first season I coached if we'd been able to come back from that.
"The belief in the group … to band together, to all know that it takes a team to be able to turn that momentum around, the belief to be able to do that, is a real growth in the group".
The game wasn't without controversy, with a free kick against Zoe Prowse in the first quarter gifting the Kangaroos a goal and the lead at quarter-time.
"At the time, in the box, we felt that it was a free kick because there was no pressure on the player," Crocker said.
"Sometimes they let those go, sometimes they don't. Whether we got lucky on one there, who knows."
Adelaide coach Matthew Clarke refused to comment on the free kick, but did say that the club would likely question the AFL as to whether it was the correct decision.
"We'll just wait and see. We'll probably ask the question," he said.
Clarke put the loss down to his side's inability to score from its forays forward in the second quarter when it had 11 inside 50s to North's one.
"It was basically two halves. We had it on our terms certainly for the first half but we didn't make the most of those opportunities and they were more efficient when they got their chances in the second half," he said.
"Disappointing, but the first half is certainly the level that we think we're capable of, and we've just got to make more of it when it's our turn."
Adelaide will now back it up next week to play in a semi-final against the winner of Saturday night's elimination final between Fremantle and Essendon.
The Crows have beaten both sides this year, coincidentally both by 33 points.
"Obviously we'll have a close look at that game and clearly whoever comes out on top we'll be buoyed by that (the fact they've beaten both teams this year)," he said.
"We'll just try and look after our side of things, clearly we'll have to analyse whatever the strengths of our upcoming opponent are, but the main game will be just trying to make sure that we look after the way we want to play. If we do that, I have confidence we'll get the outcome we're looking for."
