Darren Crocker is in the drivers’ seat.

But his wife Marcia might well be the horsepower.

For it is the wife of the former Kangaroos player turned master coach who is cooking up something that might be just as sweet as premiership success, with Marcia Crocker a secret ingredient in driving North Melbourne’s greatness.

It was a few years ago that “The Hedgehog” was born with the small spiny animal – and its delicious baked namesake – the driving force behind the team’s tilt at history.

The title is anointed to one North Melbourne player per week who best embodies the team’s spirit, drawing inspiration from the small mammal that can’t move backwards.

The award is about grit, determination and team values.

“It’s based on our identity and the way that we want to play,” star Roos midfielder and freshly-named league best-and-fairest winner Ash Riddell said this week.

“Each week the player wins The Hedgehog Award and they get the (slice) made by Marcia, and it’s the best chocolate ever.

The winner might not have even bothered the statisticians all that much, but caused the opposition to make a turnover.

Or put their head over the footy, or delivered a treat-worthy shepherd.

“We’re really good at acknowledging those behaviours – not just with ball in hand,” Riddell said.

The slice – delivered by Marcia, who caters for family and friends after games and bakes from her kitchen in Elwood as Made By Marcia – is more sought-after than even the Sherrin.

“Last year, obviously I wasn’t playing, so I could never win The Hedgehog,” All-Australian forward Blaithin Bogue said.

“But I lived with Erika (O’Shea) and Niamh Martin, and every week I was like, ‘This is their week to win it, like, come on’.

“I even said to Crock, ‘Please, I just want The Hedgehog in our house’. None of us won it. “And then this year, against Essendon, I got The Hedgehog. Ella (Slocombe) came running over and said, ‘What we would have done for that last year’.

“I think Erika’s won it maybe three times this year. She could have done that last year for me!”

Crocker would even deliver the “hedgehog dance”, complete with music, though Riddell said that the raucous laughter from his players might have caused him to quell his moves.

“He’d do this weird little groove,” she said.

As tension builds to Saturday night’s premiership decider meeting with the Brisbane Lions – the third-consecutive grand final between the two teams – Crocker has turned delivery man, and not only for his coaching addresses.

“(On Monday night), Marce was saying, ‘Do you want more treats?’,” Bogue said.

“I just said, ‘I love the hedgehog’, and Crock just said that Marcia has made me a hedgehog and that it’s in his office … so I didn’t even have to do anything for the hedgehog – I just had to tell Marce that I liked it. If only I’d known that.”

They play for the slice. But they play for the man they and those in footy call “Crock”.

The 1996 AFL premiership player was appointed to the top job in 2020 in a move that drew external criticism following the sacking of coach Scott Gowans – who had led the team to 11 wins from 14 games.

Amid the cuts that swamped the industry during the Covid-19 pandemic, Crocker was an existing staff member who combined the job with a men’s scouting position.

Players were shocked.

The Roos were slammed as a “boys club”.

But what has ensued has all the hallmarks of a dynasty with a winning record no one – not even those making the moves at Arden Street Oval – could have dreamed of.

Riddell was drafted to the Roos by Gowans after she was overlooked in two drafts. Their relationship was strong, and remains so, so whoever took the role could have had a bit of work to do.

Riddell’s first meeting with Crocker went for three hours.

They didn’t even talk about football.

“Crock came in and he’s been an amazing addition to the program. He’s been around North Melbourne forever – he’s part of the furniture and he’ll never leave us,” she said this week.

“I remember our first conversation when Scott left the football club and Crock came in and I think I was with him for coffee for three hours and we didn’t even talk about football once.

“It was just about what was going on in our lives. He loves a chat, and that’s what we love about him the most. He’s such a good storyteller.

“He brings us in, and not only do we want to play for each other, we want to play for him because we really admire the way he goes about things and he’s a terrific leader in his own right.”

Talk to those at Arden Street and they laud the coach’s commitment to the program and determination for it to be considered the top-level from the get-go.

Senior assistant coach Rhys Harwood, who worked closely alongside Gowans as list manager, said there was no scepticism internally when Crocker was parachuted into the senior coach role.

“Instantly it was clear (Crocker was fully invested). Having worked with and around him prior to that in the men’s department, his expertise was obvious, and above all he’s just a good person,” Harwood said.

“The way he’s able to form connections with the players was obvious straight away.

“I think he would be the first to say he jumped at the opportunity to coach at the top level again, and took some time to adjust – it’s a whirlwind to come in from men’s footy to women’s and find out the best ways to coach the different athletes.

“But he was willing to listen, willing to learn, willing to apply his own expertise, and you could never question his commitment or character … I don’t think he had to try too hard to get everyone on board.”

Crocker had fleeting moments as caretaker coach for the men’s team, but believed his time at the top was done before the AFLW opportunity came knocking.

He opened the door with the team under his hand renovating what the game was and is growing to be.

North Melbourne’s dominance is unmatched and – bar a scare in last week’s preliminary final against Melbourne – largely unchallenged by the rest of the competition.

There’s been signs. Or at least, the players think so.

Just like the hedgehog slice has taken the team by storm, so too has one particular saying.

“It’s a sign,” rings in the hallways, and – more prevalently – in the team group chat.

They’re everywhere, they say, from the radio to the streets.

“I am very superstitious,” Bogue said.

“On the way to the game the other day, ‘Kingy’ (Emma King) had brought us to the game and there was a van and on the back of it was a kangaroo.

“Last year, our team song was Hey Baby. Then in round 1, the last song before the bounce was Hey Baby. And it was like, ‘It’s a sign’.

“Sometimes you take signs out of nothing, because now as a club we’re so far-fetched on it.”

Captain Jasmine Garner reckons they come out of nowhere, while Riddell said things have at times become a bit ridiculous after it all began with a crutchless man.

Even she acknowledged how strange it sounds.

“We didn’t want to rely on the signs – at one point, we were looking too hard for the signs,” Riddell said.

“There was the dead guinea pig, Scratchy, but (we won’t go there).

“The best was Brisbane. We saw a guy walking with one crutch, driving to play Brisbane in round 1 last year, and then we were like, ‘That’s weird, he’s got one crutch’.

“Then 300 metres down the road we saw a crutch alone on the sidewalk, just sitting there (like it was waiting for him) and then it started.

“This year, when we played Brisbane again, we saw the same crutch in the exact same spot and it hadn’t been moved in a year.”

Both games, victory.

“There’s been some good ones,” Garner smiled.

“We have a song after every game we play if we win, we sing this song in the room.

“It was (DJ Otzi’s take on) Hey Baby for three or four years, until we won the grand final last year.

“And this year it’s changed to Dog Days Are Over (by Florence and the Machine).

“And there was a post by (Demons player) Kate Hore. At the start of the week, obviously Melbourne won (to get into the preliminary final), and her (Instagram) post and her song in the post was Dog Days Are Over.

“We were like, ‘What the hell’. Coincidence, obviously, but we take it and we have a bit of fun with it as well.”

Every sign hits the WhatsApp group within minutes, with the team hoping the signs get out of the group chat and on to the field come Saturday night.

North Melbourne is hot favourite against Brisbane, which has won nine straight games since their round 5 meeting, as they bid to become the first AFLW team to go back-to-back.

If the Kangaroos prevail, they’ll join in the chorus.

Never mind the dog days – these are the Roo days.

Of the streak, of the stars, of the chance at history.

“It’s probably better than even playing football,” Riddell said.

“That moment after the game, when we win and we’re all in a random dark room just blasting that song.”