North Melbourne champion Emma Kearney has the option of signing on next year, but will make a call on her playing future after Saturday's Grand Final.

The 36-year-old made the All-Australian squad this year and has a contract offer from North Melbourne for an 11th season, with the decision in her hands.

She said a third premiership (having won one with the Western Bulldogs in 2018, and the Roos last year) might change her mind, but she's quite happy still playing.

"I'm still sort of weighing it up at this stage, but, yeah, I've got a contract there waiting for me. I'll play this last game and then see from there, but I'm really enjoying it, so chances are I'll play on," Kearney told reporters at Arden St on Tuesday.

"I remember playing at Melbourne Uni (prior to AFLW). I was playing against Debbie Lee, and I reckon she must have been like 36, 37 at the time, and I said to some of my younger teammates, 'If I'm still playing (at that age), tell me to retire'.

"So here I am, 36, still playing. I understand why she was still playing. It's such a great game, I love it. And it certainly helps, playing in a team like North, where I don't feel like I have to do anything remarkable in how I play. I can just sort of play my role off half-back, and use my experience to help out our younger players. 

"I know that there's not much longer in my career. But I do want to stay within the game, and that's [through] coaching, at the moment. So I've done a bit done before and something that I'll look to get into."

Saturday will mark the third consecutive Grand Final meeting between North Melbourne and Brisbane, and Kearney – who's never backwards in coming forwards – said it was up to the rest of the competition to lift their game and match it with the big two.

"There's probably a lot of reasons for that, but I think it's the way that both clubs embrace their women's programs, the way they resource them, the coaching - Craig Starcevich is a terrific coach, he's got great assistants around him. It's the system that they play, the high-performance team for both," she said.

"I think the final series that we've seen has shown that there's been some exciting footy. Our prelim final was a testament to the growth of the game, and where it needs to be. Do we want the same teams being at the top? Don't care. I don't know. 

"But what we're doing at North Melbourne and Brisbane is setting the standard, and we need the other teams to come up to that standard. I'm happy being at the top for now. We'll keep trying to get better. It's now up to the other teams to work out how they can get to our level."