NORTH Melbourne premiership wingman John Burns says seeing The Final Story episode on the 1975 Grand Final has revived wonderful memories of returning to Arden Street after the match with the premiership cup.

The area under the old tin roof behind the grandstand at Arden Street was bedlam as North fans from across the generations flocked to celebrate the club's first premiership since entering the VFL in 1925.

Burns, who kicked four goals from the centre in the first half of the Roos' victory over Hawthorn in the Grand Final, said he'd never forget the emotion of the fans at Arden Street.

"Many of them were crying," Burns said.

"They were working-class people who were trying to get something out of life.

"Winning the club's first premiership meant so much to them."

The irascible Burns plays a key role in the documentary, with his cheek and humour coming through during the interviews.

There is one shot during the film in which Burns is shown looking worse for wear at South Melbourne's Lake Oval, the traditional site for premiership celebrations the day after a Grand Final.

Burns tells the interviewer he's feeling "quite ill". He also looks decidedly happy.

Burns, now 62, said after the premiere of the documentary at the Kino cinema in Melbourne that there was a special feeling for North Melbourne players "from the first bounce" of the Grand Final.

"There was 110,00-odd people there," he said, "and 92,000 of them were barracking for North."

Peter Chisnall, a wingman in the Roos' premiership team, said the film was "terrific".

He enjoyed reliving memories of the Roos' victory. He also enjoyed the insights into the feelings of Hawthorn players about the match.

Some Hawthorn players say during the film that they've never quite overcome their disappointment at losing a Grand Final that they'd been favoured to win, having defeated the Roos during their three previous matches that season.

Chisnall was a friend of Peter Crimmins, Hawthorn's captain in 1975, from the professional running circuit during summer.

Chisnall said he found it very moving during the film to see the depiction of Crimmins' failure to make the Grand Final team after a season in which he'd battled the effects of testicular cancer.

He found it moving to see just how much Crimmins had meant to his Hawthorn teammates.

A year later, Crimmins died just days after Hawthorn had won the 1976 Grand Final.

"He was one of the best blokes you could meet," Chisnall said.

There are three episodes of The Final Story, concentrating on the 1975, '84 and '90 Grand Finals.
 
The 1975 and '90 episodes were written and produced by Peter Dickson. Wayne Dyer wrote and produced the '84 episode.

In '75, a crowd of 110,551 saw North Melbourne defeat Hawthorn by 55 points, 19.8 (122) to 9.13 (67).

The '75 documentary features previously unheard audio from the coaches, North Melbourne's Ron Barassi and John Kennedy from Hawthorn, who were miked up for the day.

It features the words of Barassi and Kennedy before the match, during breaks and after the match.

Kennedy makes his famous speech at half-time that includes the line, "Don’t think. Do!"

Barassi makes his speech at three-quarter time in which he implores the Roos to make him "the proudest coach in league history".

The story that took many in the cinema by surprise surrounded North Melbourne full-forward Doug Wade and how he retained his place in the team.

There's also the story of why North half-forward Sam Kekovich missed out on being in the premiership photo.

The '75 edition of The Final Story will be shown on Channel 7 at 11.30am on Sunday, September 9.