INTERNALLY, North Melbourne knew it was good. But only that.

The club was breezing through last year's NAB AFLW finals series, but as it prepared for a maiden Grand Final berth against Brisbane it did some reflecting. Yes, the Grand Final was on the horizon. But the season, holistically, had also shown that vast improvements were still required.

As the AFLW program's hierarchy projected forward, looking ahead to a suddenly quick turnaround between the Grand Final and the start of the Trade Period, no single area was defined as needing strengthening. Rather, the Kangas just needed top-end talent to bolster what was already a good, but not yet great, squad.

Libby Birch, to that point, had long been identified by fellow AFLW recruiters as the best player potentially on the market at season's end. Melbourne was a club looking to regenerate on the run, targeting a suite of early selections, and contract discussions for Birch had subsequently stalled.

Carlton and St Kilda were among the clubs to have signalled an interest in Birch, while the Western Bulldogs also briefly discussed a potential reunion with their former premiership defender and the 22-game Dog. However, from a long way out, one club had stood out as the overwhelming favourite to land her signature.

Hawthorn had always appeared as though it would be Birch's next destination. To that point in time, the Hawks were the only club to have met with the dual All-Australian and the only club to have made an official offer. To other sides, both those interested and not, Birch was destined to join the competition’s newest expansion outfit.

However, as rivals described Birch's move to Hawthorn as a near formality, North Melbourne patiently waited in the wings. In the days before its Grand Final debut, a call was made to Birch's representatives. "Would it be too late to arrange a meeting?" Kangaroos officials inquired.

The next Sunday, North Melbourne fell to Brisbane by 17 points in the Grand Final. It was bitterly disappointing, but not overly surprising. Already in that season, Darren Crocker's side had been outplayed by the Lions in Tasmania, lost comfortably to the Demons at Ikon Park, and been beaten by the Crows in a thriller.

Their suspicions were right. They were good, but not great. Despite the recent finals success and its Grand Final qualification, North Melbourne viewed itself as the competition’s fourth best team. It needed to get better.

Knowing that only elite talent could catapult them into the competition's upper echelons, North Melbourne's recruiting staff began watching Birch's vision with more intent. As the best attainable player available, would she fit into their defensive system? The answer was a resounding yes.

Birch wouldn’t be targeted with a specific role in mind. For example, she wouldn’t be coming to play on the opposition’s best forward every week. Rather, the Roos had identified the dual premiership player as someone that could be moulded around what they had. They suddenly became excited by the combinations she could potentially create with Jasmine Ferguson and Sarah Wright down back.

So, the meeting that was once speculatively inquired about became a reality. The following Tuesday, with the club's AFLW officials still bleary eyed following North Melbourne's Mad Monday celebrations the night before, Birch arrived at Arden Street to meet with Crocker, football boss Nathan Hrovat and list manager Flynn Loft.

Immediately, the trio recognised Birch's professionalism, diligence, leadership and experience. It was everything they had wanted in a target that could potentially take the club from good to great. They were sold, and so was Birch.

Birch garnered an instant connection with Crocker, who played a significant role in convincing her to choose North Melbourne over Hawthorn. Their personalities gelled, as he described the club’s direction, its path towards success, and her role in that premiership journey.

Crocker was just like Birch. He was honest, straight, down the line, and fiercely competitive. Birch recognised those traits, liked what she heard, was impressed by the club’s redeveloped AFLW facilities at Arden Street, and suddenly felt compelled to agree to their impending offer.

Hawthorn, who for so long had appeared the overwhelming favourites to secure Birch, was subsequently told that she was heading to North Melbourne in the days that followed. By the Thursday afternoon, as Kangas staffers were preparing for the best and fairest awards that same evening, the news filtered through to them as well.

Birch had agreed to North Melbourne’s three-year contract offer, seeing her through at Arden Street until at least 2026. All that was left to conclude was the trade itself, a potentially tricky task that ultimately provided few issues.

By the Friday morning, a trade request was official. In the hours after it was lodged, trade talks between North Melbourne and Melbourne ramped up. Across that following weekend, amicable negotiations progressed and by 10am AEDT the next Monday morning the paperwork to make Birch a Kangaroos player was submitted to the AFL’s headquarters.

Confirmation of Birch’s move arrived just eight days after North Melbourne’s Grand Final defeat and only six days after the club first met with Birch. Her trade request came within 48 hours of that same meeting. In an era where AFL and AFLW recruiting departments spend months, if not years, courting specific targets, a deal for Birch happened virtually in the blink of an eye.

North Melbourne had swooped, swiftly and silently. It had parted with pick No.19 to secure Birch and pick No.35 from Melbourne, instantly putting its Grand Final heartache aside to focus on the road ahead. The Kangas could see how Birch would make them better, and so it has proved.

This season Birch has displayed the professionalism and leadership she promised at Arden Street from her very first meeting. It was there when she made a remarkably speedy recovery from a pre-season MCL injury to make round one and has continued throughout.

She fought through a broken rib to play during North Melbourne's gruelling mid-season stretch – which included three matches in nine days – and has helped Crocker's scintillating team achieve an undefeated season so far through both her reliability and her consistency down back.

On Saturday night, she'll also be there as the Kangaroos look to go undefeated once more and become the first expansion side to claim AFLW premiership success. Should it do so it will also be a marker of the club's improvement from this time one year ago, with Birch's arrival playing a key factor in that.

Having already become the first AFLW player to feature in two flags at two different teams – tasting premiership glory at the Western Bulldogs in 2018 and then at Melbourne in 2022 – Birch could also rewrite the history books once more and make it three cups at three clubs.

It would be a fitting way to cap an extraordinary 12 months for both Birch and the Roos.