North Melbourne coach Brad Scott praised his side's depth of leadership after a tight seven-point win over Adelaide that punches their finals ticket.
The Kangaroos' come-from-behind 14.17 (101) to 13.16 (94) win at Blundstone Arena in Hobart was achieved without suspended pair Brent Harvey and Daniel Wells.
Two goals down after conceding the first goal of the last term, North Melbourne were standing on the edge.
But his Kangaroos side stood up, kicking the next four goals in a tense affair.
Jack Ziebell kicked two final term goals amongst his 4.5, Ryan Bastinac, playing his 100th game, also kicked two, with Andrew Swallow providing the clearances and Nick Dal Santo the polish.
Michael Firrito was excellent all match in defence, while schoolboy second-gamer Kayne Turner also popped up with two goals.
Scott said his next tier of leaders was superb.
"I thought they were superb," Scott said.
"We've got confidence in our depth, and we've needed depth this year because we haven't had great availability."
Scott was most pleased with replicating the pressure of a final with the match on the line in the last ten minutes.
"I think the players would have felt that last 10 minutes was like a final.
"That's what we're going to get in finals for four quarters, so the more practice you can get at that the better," he said.
Ziebell provided the star turn after initially being sent up forward for a rest.
Scott said the runner had to "almost push" him to stay there, with Ziebell saying he wasn't keen to make the shift permanent.
"You don't want to change a formula that works," the midfielder said.
"It's good for our team to have a couple of guys who can rest forward and have an impact on the scoreboard, I'm just lucky it was my turn this week."
Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson said his team was "very emotionally drained" by the result, which takes their chances of making the finals out of their own hands.
"They had no more energy to give which is great but ... we have to question some of the decisions we made at critical times," he said.
"Two wins would have put us in. Now we need to beat St Kilda next week and rely on a lot of things going our way."
The Crows' loss keeps the door open for West Coast, Richmond and Collingwood to snatch eighth spot, ensuring the make-up of the top eight will come down to the last day of the home and away season.
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