Dockers poised to work hard for victory

"In finals' football it will come down to the basic fundamentals of football which come to the fore and they are the two main areas, I think," Proctor said.

"We've beaten North Launceston here before and if we play our brand of football and defend well, then we are every chance.

"But if we don't come to work harder than the opposition and make it a contested game and stop their run - obviously they are one of the quickest teams in the competition and terrific from the stoppages and we need to be mindful of that.

"If we can put something down in that area I think we are every chance."

Proctor will have quickly moved their focus onto the Northern Bombers after last week's 74-point loss to Glenorchy and although disappointed with that performance, said there were extenuating circumstances.

"It wasn't ideal and it's not a great time of year to be dropping games by that much, however it didn't help having two available rotations on the bench in the first quarter," he said.

"That threw things out a bit and defensively we weren't able to go with them. I think we were out on our feet a fair bit with the rotations happening on the ground to a degree and it is almost too difficult to defend when you haven't got the legs - which we obviously struggled with.

"Glenorchy move the footy as quickly and skilfully as anyone and they opened us up and we have a few things to work on and we know where we are at and time will tell."

North Launceston begin their premiership finals defence coming off a two-point loss to Devonport and with some work to do of their own in areas where coach Zane Littlejohn said they fell down.

"If we'd kicked straight, it would have helped and just our contribution across the board - we had five or six players who performed their roles really well but we just fell away too quickly," he said.

"When that happens we obviously see the result so we need to make sure we have got an even contribution from all of our players which is important."

Littlejohn said Burnie was a team with quality players such as Proctor, (Jason) Laycock, (Darren) Banham, the Walters, (Romain) Grenville and Dylan Smith with some experience and exciting youth such as Ryan Gardner.

"We have that much respect for them and we understand that this is going to be our biggest challenge this year and one we have to be ready for."