Two years after claiming the 1972 wooden spoon, North Melbourne charged up the ladder in 1974.

With legendary coach Ron Barassi at the helm, the Kangaroos finished second at the end of the home and away season before recording their first finals victories since 1958, defeating Hawthorn in the qualifying and preliminary finals.

But on Grand Final day in 1974, the Kangaroos were outclassed by reigning premier Richmond, the Tigers clinching back-to-back flags with a 41-point win.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Barassi used North’s post-match function at the Southern Cross Hotel to ram home a message to his players.

“I’m not proud today and I hope you are not hypocritical to yourselves about our performance,” Barassi said. “I’m afraid some players did not show enough desire to win.

“Players just have to hate more fiercely the word 'defeat'.

"Today, you’ve tasted the ultimate defeat in the ultimate match. I hope it stays with you until next year. It’s my place to say this, not anyone else’s. If I sound like a bastard, it’s because I’m telling the truth.”

1975 begins: The bitter taste of defeat

When the 1975 season began, the bitter taste of defeat became all too familiar for the Kangaroos as they dropped their opening four games. Most concerningly, they suffered two of those losses to 1974’s bottom-two teams: reigning wooden-spooner Melbourne and Fitzroy, which had lost its previous 13 matches.

“We’ve lost enthusiasm and the confidence to do the things that took us places last year,” Barassi said at the time.

The Roos seemed to get their season back on track with wins in rounds five and six, coming from 29 points down to defeat Geelong at Kardinia Park and then thumping Footscray by 53 points at Arden Street.

North also avenged its 1974 Grand Final loss, defeating Richmond by eight points at home in round eight, but that win was sandwiched between losses to Collingwood and Essendon. After round nine, the Kangaroos sat 10th, third last, with just three wins.

At the time, The Age’s chief football writer and former Melbourne star rover, Percy Beames, had seen enough to write off North’s finals chances. Beames figured the Kangaroos needed to win 11 of their last 13 games to reach the finals, something he thought was beyond them.

But North would do exactly that, dropping just its round 12 match against Hawthorn, by 25 points at Arden Street, and its round 20 game against the Bombers, by 14 points at Windy Hill, on its way to securing third spot at the end of the home and away season.

The finals: Injuries strike, and a 'decisive' loss?

North kicked off its September campaign against second-placed Carlton in the qualifying final at the MCG. In an engrossing contest played in heavy rain after quarter-time, the Kangaroos led at every change, taking control of the match in the second half to prevail by 20 points.

North’s victory took it into the second semi-final, where it would face Hawthorn, which had topped the league, at Waverley Park. North had surrendered its two home and away matches against the Hawks rather meekly, but pushed them all game on this occasion, briefly hitting the front in the third quarter before going down by 11 points.

North’s loss was soured by injuries to Doug Wade (hamstring) and Graham Melrose (broken thumb), two of the star players who had been lured to the club in president Allen Aylett's audacious recruiting drive.

Wade was also reported for striking Hawthorn defender Ian Bremner in the second quarter. The former Geelong captain was cleared at the tribunal, but both he and Melrose failed to prove their fitness for the preliminary final against Richmond.

The Tigers were striving to make their fourth straight Grand Final, but when the game got underway they struggled to cope with North’s fast, precise ball movement, especially by hand. By midway through the third quarter, the Kangaroos had built a 26-point lead. But the Tigers fought back and closed to within six points late in the final term before the Roos kicked the final two goals to run out 17-point victors.

In Grand Final week, Wade and Melrose pulled out all stops to prove their fitness at the Kangaroos’ final two training sessions. Ultimately, Wade did enough to take his place at full-forward, but Melrose, who had played every game of the year until his injury, struggled to handle the ball without pain and was ruled out.

In the lead-up, the Hawks seemed to hold a significant advantage: the Kangaroos had played three hard-fought finals, while Hawthorn had played just one, having earned a rest in the first week of the finals as minor premier and a further rest in week three after the semi-final win.

In his Grand Final preview, Herald chief football writer Alf Brown's view was that Hawthorn's lighter workload would prove decisive:

"That loss to Hawthorn in the semi-final will cost North their first flag."

At selection, North named ruckman Barry Goodingham in a forward pocket in an attempt to sway the Hawks to play back-up ruckman Bernie Jones - which they did.

The Grand Final: A selection ploy pays off

On Grand Final day, North’s ploy became apparent when Goodingham went to the reserves bench just before the first bounce, with defender Gary Farrant coming into the Kangaroos’ starting 18.

After the game, Barassi said North had never intended Goodingham would start the match: "Not that we didn’t respect Jones, but we thought (Frank) Gumbleton could cover him."

The Kangaroos kicked the Grand Final’s first goal after a minute and a half, when John Burns marked and—courtesy of a 15-metre penalty awarded against Hawks full-back Kelvin Moore—bounced his shot through from 60 metres out.

Hawthorn hit back almost immediately when Barry Rowlings marked and goaled. And with Scott starting well in the ruck, the Hawks’ midfield launched a series of attacks. Fortunately for the Kangaroos, John Rantall, Gumbleton, and David Dench were able to cut them off.

The Hawks were giving Burns plenty of latitude around the ground and the centreman made them pay. After receiving a short pass from Malcoim Blight, he played on and kicked his and North’s second goal. Brent Crosswell provided a moment of individual brilliance midway through the quarter, bursting clear from the centre to kick North’s third goal from long range.

After Don Scott goaled for the Hawks from a free kick awarded against Gumbleton, Arnold Briedis outdid Crosswell’s earlier goal, losing Kelvin Matthews on a searching run before squeezing the ball through centimetres inside the left-hand goalpost.

At quarter-time, the Kangaroos led by two goals and appeared to have an edge in pace around the ground, with Keith Greig and Sam Kekovich particularly influential in the first term.

The Hawks made the early running in the second quarter but, in a trend that would hold for much of the term, most of their attacks broke down through a combination of their own poor disposal and the resolute defence of North’s backmen.

Wayne Schimmelbusch kicked the quarter’s first goal after getting on the end of a clever passage of play initiated by Barry Cable. Hawks Shane Murphy, Leigh Matthews and Alan Martello then botched goal chances in quick succession before Stuart Trott finally converted after roving to Scott at a boundary throw-in.

A short period midway through the quarter summed up both teams’ terms. Firstly, Hawk speedster Geoff Ablett hit the post with a set shot from dead-in-front near the top of the goalsquare. If Ablett had goaled the Hawks would have been just 10 points down but, in the next four minutes, North rubbed salt into their opponent’s self-inflicted wounds, ramming on three goals—two through classy snaps from Burns—to lead by 33 points at the 23-minute mark.

North kicked 5.0 for the quarter, but two late Hawthorn goals, from Des Meagher and Martello, got the Hawks back to within 20 points at half-time despite their wasteful 3.4 term. Young forward Michael Cooke, well held by Dench, was replaced at the break, and his League career was over after only two games.

Neither team could manage consecutive goals in the third quarter, with North’s defence, led by an inspired Crosswell, strangling the Hawthorn attack. The Kangaroos stretched their lead to 29 points just before three-quarter time when Wade snapped a goal from the back of a pack.

The Hawks threw everything at North at the start of the final term. In the opening 15 minutes, they dominated play but managed just five behinds.

North did not score in that period but soon after killed off any hopes of a Hawthorn comeback with two quick goals from Briedis. It was the start of an unanswered six-goal burst by the Kangaroos that blew their lead out to 61 points, before they finally ran out 55-point victors.

'If I die now, it doesn't matter'

Briedis kicked four goals for the term to finish with five for the match. It was an impressive response after he had been moved off Peter Knights, Hawthorn’s best player on the day, in the third quarter.

There was no shortage of heroes for the Kangaroos. Their defence, led by Crosswell, Rantall on the dangerous Leigh Matthews, and Dench stood tall. Greig, Burns, with four first-half goals, and Cable were dominant through the midfield, while Mick Nolan won his ruck duel with Scott. 

According to The Age’s Beames, North’s victory was built on attacking handball.
 "Barassi has gone further than any other coach in exploiting handball. It … bewildered and depressed Hawthorn,” Beames wrote.

Knights wrote in The Age that his team had been beaten by the Kangaroos’ “fanatical desire” and their “run-run-run, fast, play-on game (and) full-on pressure.”

As you’d expect after such a long wait, North celebrated long and hard.

On Grand Final night, about 6000 joyous fans flocked to Arden Street to see the players introduced on the back of a semi-trailer. Barassi later recalled the “magic” atmosphere at North’s spiritual home. “My greatest pleasure that night was watching the old supporters … (the) 50, 60 and 70-year-olds,” Barassi said. “They were saying, ‘If I die now, it doesn’t matter,’ that sort of thing. It was absolutely magnificent.”

It had taken 106 years from the club's formation and 50 years in the Victorian Football League, but finally North Melbourne had delivered its first League premiership.

This is an edited extract from 'The Shinboners - The Complete History of the North Melbourne Football Club', first published in 2017.

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