It was Bastinac's first and only taste of AFL finals and literally left an unpleasant taste in his mouth.
Then a 21-year-old in his third season, Bastinac overcame a bout of gastro to make the flight to Perth for an elimination final.
"I was pretty crook during that week, so they're not great memories," Bastinac reflected.
The Kangaroos were then ruthlessly shown up, conceding the first nine goals of the game en route to a 96-point shellacking.
This was not the stuff dreams are made of.
"That's why we're keen to get back there and rectify that performance," Bastinac said in the lead-up to Saturday's clash with Adelaide, his first major milestone.
"Because it was just embarrassing how we played in it.
"We learned a lot from that final.
"If we get a chance this year, it's going to be a lot different."
The Kangaroos are all but guaranteed of finishing in the top eight.
To miss out they would need to lose games against Adelaide and Melbourne, while being overtaken by the Crows, Essendon and one other side.
It's effectively impossible, North will be there.
"You can always tell when finals are close, the sun comes out a bit," Bastinac said.
"It is exciting.
"But we haven't really spoken about it and we need to finish the season off well. You need to be in form if you want to play well in finals."
By his own admission, Bastinac's personal form has fluctuated in a season full of niggles.
"I'm not too happy with my year so far," he said.
"But hopefully I can change that leading into the most important part of the season."
Bastinac has added more strings to his bow, spending parts of the season stationed up forward where he's learned from Leigh Adams.
"Whatever the coach asks, I'll do," he said.
It's one of many attributes Brad Scott has known and loved, even before he became North's coach at the end of the 2009 season.
"Funnily enough I just happened to watch Ryan a lot as a 16, 17 year old," Scott said.
"When I was appointed to North Melbourne in 2009, I was rapt to hear when I got here that our recruiters rated him really highly."
In addition to Scott and his assistants, Bastinac nominated Brent Harvey and Daniel Wells - both sidelined for this weekend's game in Hobart due to suspension, as being some of his best teachers.
"Not stopping my pressure ... how I can impact games by not having as much of the footy," the 23-year-old said of one aspect of the game Harvey has helped him work on.
