BRENT Harvey appeared untroubled by the threat of a Match Review Panel sanction when North Melbourne players hit the water for post-match recovery on Saturday morning.
The former club captain was upbeat as the Roos gathered after their six-point semi-final win over Geelong at the beach in Albert Park.
Teammate Nick Dal Santo said the club would deal with the fallout from Harvey's second-quarter bump on Joel Selwood that is likely to come under scrutiny, but believed the veteran was in a good headspace after the incident.
Click here to watch the full match replay of the Roos' win
"Brent's pretty happy. I didn't notice him too flat today when we were doing recovery," Dal Santo said.
"He loves this time of year.
"I was speaking to him about the disappointment of missing some weeks and the opportunity to play finals, because at his age and the reason you play football is to play finals.
"We'll see. We can't do much about it at this stage but we'll deal with whatever comes out throughout the week."
Coach Brad Scott told Triple M he wasn't going to worry about the outcome of the Harvey incident as he couldn't control what happened in the next 48 hours.
The Kangaroos will know on Monday if Harvey has a case to answer.
While the Roos have proven they can win without Harvey, going undefeated during his recent three-match ban, Dal Santo said they would naturally prefer him to be out there.
"We don't want to have to play without him by choice, it would be nice if he was there," Dal Santo said.
"I thought he was fantastic last night, he broke the game open a couple of times with some great runs and bounces.
"Fingers crossed it all goes well and we don't have to worry about it."
Dal Santo is back playing finals again after crossing from St Kilda last year.
He said the years in between his last finals appearance (2011) had made him realise how important the opportunity was.
Player focus: Dal Santo delivers exactly what North needed
"I've obviously been very fortunate at St Kilda to play in these sorts of games and I really appreciate how special they are," he said.
"Our last two weeks have been sensational, I've really enjoyed the way the boys have gone about it and the support we've had from the North crowd has been amazing, so we've got a couple to go hopefully."
It emerged after the Roos' win over Essendon in last week's elimination final that Dal Santo had given a tough summation of the team's predicament when they trailed by 27 points at half-time.
His ‘line in the sand’ moment and leadership in the second half was important in turning the game on its head.
Dal Santo played down the significance of his words but admitted he was happy with the response they generated.
"I had a chat to the boys last week and said a few things, nothing drastic, it doesn't need to be blown out of proportion," he said.
"I just thought the way the boys responded last week was fantastic.
"We want success as a group and we want success for supporters that haven't had a lot for quite awhile."
Teammate Levi Greenwood said while Dal Santo had struggled at times with tags this year, the former Saint had contributed plenty to the team throughout the season and had stepped up on Friday night against the Cats.
"He'd had a bit of an up and down year. I think he's been pretty solid and I think one of the things he needs to work on is getting through that tag and really breaking through it," Greenwood told 3AW.
"What he does bring to the club is his really strong leadership, which is probably something we have been lacking.
"His knowledge of the game is huge and he's played in big games before and he just brings a lot to the younger guys for them to feed off.
"He was big last night, he was really composed under pressure and he's just good to have out there with his skills and he sets up the play really well from half back."
