Launceston's Brodie Paflreyman suffers suspected broken leg in loss

Going for the ball deep into the third quarter, Palfreyman's lower leg was impacted by North Hobart's Josch Bingham before being helped from the field in obvious discomfort.

"It's really disappointing for a guy that's a first-year captain and been an excellent leader for the club so we're all a bit worried about him as opposed to the result," coach Mitch Thorp said.

"Obviously we're disappointed to lose but to lose Brodie, particularly at the time of the game that it was but overall, for his health, he's not good either."

The Blues were trailing by just four points at the time of injury but North Hobart booted four goals to two in the final term to confirm the 12.13 (85) to 10.8 (68) result.

Palfreyman's injury means they may be without both of their captains for their likely run at finals, with Jobi Harper sidelined indefinitely due to personal reasons.

The Demons' victory keeps their brief finals hopes alive, trailing the fourth-placed Blues by four premiership points and 26.39 per cent heading into clashes with Clarence and North Launceston, while Thorp's men play Lauderdale and Glenorchy.

"Overall, we're just not a good enough kicking side, we just turned the ball over far too often," Thorp said.

"The effort was pretty solid but the skill execution was what really let us down and we probably lost a bit of momentum at three-quarter-time losing Palf.

"We had to re-jig things a little bit and it was a bit of a challenge after that but credit to North Hobart, they kept cracking in and we just weren't good enough.

"If we didn't have Dyl [Dylan Riley] today, we probably lose by quite a bit, he kicked six and was the best player on the ground by miles."

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The two-time Peter Hudson Medallist kicked three goals in the second quarter, two through set-shots and the other from the goal-square after the strong work of Jacob Wheeler.

He followed it up with another set-shot and an impressive mark in the square in the third before finishing his day by converting a fourth-quarter 50-metre penalty.

"He's been a very good player for a very, very long time, he's had his own issues body-wise - he's had a really chronic ankle that's been niggling away but he's found his feet in the last couple of weeks," Thorp said.

"We'll keep cracking away and trying our best but we've certainly lost some significant players through injury this year, which is challenging to cover when we've got quite an inexperienced team."

Liam Jones, Liam Canny, Joe Groenewegen and debutant Lenny Faulkner also impressed for the Blues, while Cohen Stephenson kicked three for the Demons and Angus Norton, David Monks and skipper Callan Daly were strong.

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