ALTHOUGH it has been forced to watch Saturday's AFLW Grand Final from the sidelines, Melbourne has added a real sense of intrigue to this year's finals series.

In last Saturday's preliminary final, the Demons got closer to the all-conquering North Melbourne than any team has done in the last 445 days, and forced the Roos into a deficit for longer in that one game than they had been across the entire 2025 season up to that point

Now, there is a tiny seed of doubt in fans' minds for the first time. The Grand Final result is no longer a foregone conclusion.

There are a host of strategies that Brisbane can employ from Melbourne's challenge, plenty of which are already keys to the Lions' game style, making the decider a tantalising match-up.

Melbourne proved that by focusing on three clear parts of the game, the Roos become mortal once more.

The contest and territory

Priority No.1 must be making things especially tough and physical around the contest, making life hard for the Roos trying to extract and release the footy. This is a combination of preventing clean access to the footy, and minimising the Roos' handball game.

North Melbourne's dominance over the last two seasons has started at the source – win the hard ball, flick to the outside, use clean disposal in space, attack. Interrupting that flow at the very start of the chain goes a long way toward taking away other assets.

It is crucial to disallow the Roos early territory, from which they set up their defence and trap teams into increasingly small areas. Winning the contest, or making things messy at stoppage, takes away this quick territory gain – and can offer opposing teams forward movement themselves.

The midfield balance, then, becomes particularly important. Brisbane relies on the trio of Belle Dawes, Ally Anderson, and Cathy Svarc off the top, with the added bonus of ruck Tahlia Hickie's ground-level skill, but the likes of Charlie Mullins, and Sophie Conway have moved through the contest at times this year.

Dawes and Svarc are the explosive power, Anderson is a pure ball-winner, Mullins is the class, and Conway is the run. Together they become a unit that can genuinely challenge the stars of North Melbourne's midfield.

It requires disciplined layers, however, with all the skill on show worth nothing if everyone crowds the footy and leaves opponents sitting free and clear a mere handball away.

Limit uncontested marks

It has been well-documented that North Melbourne averages more disposals than any other team, and uses those touches at a higher efficiency than any team before. What Melbourne did particularly well was take away the Roos' uncontested marking game.

For just the second time this year, North Melbourne lost the mark count (going -21), and this helped lead to its narrowest uncontested possession win (+13) for the season.

There was less freedom for the Roos to just move the ball how they desired once establishing possession in space, and this was thanks to an attentive defensive structure from Melbourne right across the field.

Brisbane must replicate this by defending individuals rather than space, not allowing North Melbourne's clever playing group to simply adjust on the run, and identify the gaps, because it will identify any opportunities and run with them.

This is where the impact of wingers becomes crucially important. For Melbourne last week it was Eliza McNamara and Paxy Paxman early in the piece doing the damage, and the Lions have a well-established wing rotation led by Orla O'Dwyer and Conway who have the capacity to do the same.

Getting dangerous themselves is one thing, but also identifying and closing off players who have worked to lose their direct opponent will be key to their role on the day.

Force defenders into one-on-ones

North Melbourne's systematic, team defence has been a hallmark of its game for several years, and that has resulted in the stingiest backline in each of the last three years, conceding an average of 22.9 points in 2023, 19.2 in 2024, and 22.1 this year.

Rarely – if ever – has North gone into a game with a specific defensive match-up in mind. Instead, it's about owning areas of the ground, funnelling opposition attacks wide, and forcing turnover.

What Melbourne did last week was trap the Roos' defenders into one-on-one battles, not allowing them to work together, and getting them out of their comfort zone.

Too often against the Roos have teams dragged forwards up to the play to support around the ball, leaving one forward to compete with the North system, and save for an impressive contested mark, the intercept and rebound is completed with ease.

Melbourne, however, kept its numbers ahead of the play and crucially that wasn't simply a case of tall marking targets, but effective crumbers sitting front and centre. It meant that if the ball wasn't won in the air, there was representation to keep the attacking play alive.

Given the speed of smalls like Ruby Svarc and All-Australian Courtney Hodder on the Lions' list, as well as the mid-sized strength and agility of Neasa Dooley, they have the capacity to effectively challenge that ground ball should they remain switched on mentally for the duration. Working off talls like Dakota Davidson and Taylor Smith, and causing havoc once the ball hits the ground is an effective method – as last week's win over Carlton proved.

It does require smart ball use going forward. Personnel must maintain their structure, but kicking long inside 50 must be considered, and to the advantage of the forwards, not dumped on the heads of the Roos' numbers.