Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan insists his side's 51-point, wooden-spoon clinching, loss to North Melbourne should not overshadow the improvements made during the 2017 season.
The battle between the bottom two sides at the start of the final round was unsurprisingly lacking in quality but the Kangaroos' superior desire saw them run out 19.16 (130) to 11.13 (79) winners in front of a crowd of 15,416 at the Gabba.
The Kangaroos will now likely finish the campaign in 15th spot on the ladder, leapfrogging Carlton and Gold Coast.
The Lions will have the first pick in the AFL draft for the first time in 19 years, having selected second after the past two seasons.
"We're disappointed but we are not going to let it define our season," Fagan said.
"It is one game out of 22 and pretty much since the bye, bar the Geelong game, we have been so competitive and had a crack and been in a lot of games.
"We were really disappointed we lost a really important game for us, in terms of not wanting the wooden spoon, by that margin and in that manner."
Fagan admitted a ball-winning midfielder will likely be a priority with the opening draft pick after his side were dominated in that area.
"They killed us a clearances, particularly at centre bounces," he said.
"We tried numerous things we changed personnel, we changed structure we tried things outside the square and none of it seemed to work."
Ben Brown was the star man kicking seven goals for North to move within one of Coleman Medal leader Josh Kennedy.
"He's such an accurate set shot we might have to do a bit of work on his kicking on the run," North coach Brad Scott saidof Brown.
Scott felt his side's performance gave an indication of better days ahead for the Kangaroos.
"We've had 11 debutants, plus Marley Williams and Nathan Hrovat so that's a fair chunk of our side that's different to last year," he said.
"The silver lining of our injury toll is it's given us a look at a number of players."
One of those debutants, Ben McKay had a horror early end to his AFL bow being stretched off in a neck brace after a collision with team-mate Sam Durdin late in the third quarter and was taken to hospital for observation.
The Kangaroos got little reward for their dominance early on scoring 1.8 against the Lions' five goals straight from just nine Inside 50s in the first quarter.
The second quarter was a role reversal as the Lions could only muster 0.5 and the visitors hit 4.2 including two from Brown.
The Lions came out of the long break even more lackadaisical and their scoreless run went on until the 18 minute-mark of the third.
In contrast the Kangaroos kicked nine straight goals to all but seal the game ending the term 33 points in front.