After North Melbourne ruthlessly won their preliminary final against Port Adelaide on Saturday afternoon by 57 points, midfield star Mia King was asked on ABC's broadcast who she'd rather meet in the grand final: Adelaide or Brisbane.
While politely saying both would be great contests, she'd take the Lions. A grand final re-match. A chance for the Kangaroos to get their revenge on the team who stopped them claiming their maiden premiership last year.
She got her wish.
Loading...Later that evening, Brisbane stormed home against Adelaide in Springfield to win by 18 points and book their spot in the decider, their sixth grand final appearance in eight seasons of the competition.
Now history beckons for either side.
For North Melbourne, not only will a premiership be their first AFLW one in the trophy cabinet, but it will be the first one won by an expansion side.
The Kangaroos entered the competition in 2019, along with Geelong. Last season, many referred to their ride into the decider as a fairytale. They were the first expansion side to play in a grand final and could bring premiership glory to a club that's last flag dates back to 1999.
North Melbourne captain Emma Kearney kicks the ball.
Notably, North Melbourne won the VFLW premiership this year, defeating the Western Bulldogs by 20 points, indicating the strength of the women's program at the club.
But despite kicking the first goal of the game — through none other than stalwart midfield star Jas Garner — and leading at the last change, the Kangaroos were overrun in the final quarter by the Lions. Brisbane ended up winning by 17 points to claim their second flag in competition history.
The Lions kicked four goals to zip in the final term to yank the cup from the hands of the Kangaroos and lift it high on North's home deck.
The Kangaroos aren't a side to publicly play into emotions — but that had to light a pretty severe fire in their bellies, which has seemed evident as they've fought their way to this year's grand final undefeated.
North Melbourne and Brisbane will meet again in the 2024 AFLW grand final.
For Brisbane, despite playing in five previous deciders, they have never gone back-to-back. In fact, no side has. The Crows are the only other club with multiple premierships with three; the Lions have two.
Last year, despite their lengthy success in the competition, the Lions deemed themselves underdogs. After they won the premiership, they put out a social media post which featured quotes of all the pundits who questioned their premiership credentials heading into the season.
Even during the game, they found themselves trailing by seven points at three-quarter time and had to claw their way back to the win.
Dakota Davidson holds the premiership trophy after 2023 Brisbane win.
And it's very possible they still carry the same chip on their shoulder. Despite being reigning premiers with the most grand final appearances of any side, they didn't start the season as flag favourites. North Melbourne did.
Even amongst competition captains, who were anonymously polled in early August. Nine skippers picked the Kangaroos to win the premiership, just edging out the Lions, who earned eight votes.
North Melbourne will likely go into this coming weekend as favourites. But while they beat Brisbane by a comfortable 44 points in the opening round of the season, the Lions beat the Crows by more points (18) than the Roos did (7) this finals series.
All of this has resulted in a genuine rivalry between these two sides — which, to the delight of the wider AFLW community, sets the stage for a blockbuster confrontation of powers next Saturday night at Princes Park.