With Preliminary Final weekend upon us, Ronny Lerner caught up with former North Melbourne mastermind Denis Pagan to reflect on one of the most important matches of his illustrious coaching career; the 1996 Second Preliminary Final against the Brisbane Bears.
The 1996 Second Preliminary Final was judgment day for fourth-year Kangaroos coach Denis Pagan and his men after they had endured the heartache of preliminary final defeats in the previous two years.
North Melbourne finished second on the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season that year and gained passage through to its third preliminary final in succession after easily accounting for Geelong by 60 points in the Third Qualifying Final.
The victory gave Pagan's men a valuable week off, and they needed it as the final hurdle that lay between them and an elusive Grand Final appearance was the rising force from the north - the Brisbane Bears.
The 1996 finals series marked the official awakening of the Bears after a decade of mediocrity and disappointment in the VFL/AFL and they were heading towards their first preliminary final date against the Kangaroos with a full head of steam.
Brisbane claimed the scalps of seasoned finals campaigners Essendon and Carlton - significantly by a whopping 97 points just 12 months after it completed the most dominant season of the modern era on its way to the 1995 premiership - prior to its encounter with North Melbourne, but Pagan recalls that it was going to take a lot more than unbridled enthusiasm to deny him and his men their shot at glory.
"From our point of view, from my memory, all it was about was we'd been beaten in (the) '94 (preliminary final by Geelong and) been thrashed by Carlton in (the) '95 prelim. We were men on a mission," Pagan recollected.
"We had a good build-up that year - I think we finished second. I can remember vividly Ron Joseph speaking to the playing group just before the finals started, the famous 'cup in the hessian bag' (it was) a very motivational thing."
Joseph's stirring presentation to the players of one of the club's two premiership cups as a reminder of what they could achieve was stage managed to inspire the Kangaroos - and it worked as they proceeded to blow Brisbane away with a dominant eight-goal-to-three opening term.
By half time the game was as good as over as the Wayne Carey-inspired Kangaroos enjoyed a 50-point lead over a Brisbane outfit that played the match without Michael Voss who would go on to win the Brownlow Medal two days later.
Twenty-five-year-old Carey was in sublime form against Brisbane that day, racking up 24 touches, 14 marks and 3.2 from centre half-forward, and although there was no denying his importance to the team, Pagan insists he didn't draw extra confidence from having arguably the greatest-ever player at his disposal.
"You don't think of it like that. I know it might sound romantic, (but) the coach thinks about everybody," Pagan pointed out.
"We had Wayne, he was sensational, we had a lot of other guys who were very even and tried their hardest and that's all a coach could ask for."
North extended its advantage to 55 points by the final change and ran out victors 17.12 (114) to 11.10 (76). Finally, after two years of unfulfilled promise, Pagan's Kangaroos had their chance