While the Selkirk Roosters might have had a couple of days on the Apple Isle, it was no holiday as the Devils gave them the fright of their life.

Tasmania appears to be in its last days as an entity in the VFL and it showed North Ballarat it wants to go out with a bang.

Although the Roosters scraped in by 18 points, 18.5.113 to 20.11.131, it was not enough to retain their place in the top two.

In two weeks a shock loss to Northern Bullants and close call against Tasmania has caused North Ballarat to slip from top position to third.

If that is where it stays, it will certainly miss out on a home final which it had been hoping for.

Ironically, it was former Rooster Justin Hardy who looked like he might have put a nail in North Ballarat's coffin when he was pushed up from centre half back and goaled to give the Devils the lead again 14 minutes into the last quarter.

Fortunately, the Roosters had Josh Smith.

Smith responded with three goals to take his tally to seven and North Ballarat was home.

Playing his first match after knee trouble, Smith combined with Ed Lower, Stephen Clifton, Daniel McConnell and Eddie Sansbury to get the Roosters back on track after an indifferent first half when they trailed by 24 points.

Like most of his team-mates, the North Melbourne-listed Smith had a quiet opening half with just one goal, but finished off with a match-winning three in each of the remaining quarters.

His Kangaroos team-mate Aaron Edwards chimed in with four goals in a steady performance.

Tasmania almost beat North Ballarat at its own game - pushing forward hard and in numbers - and no matter what the visitors did they could not stop the lively Devils in a free scoring encounter.

Roosters coach Gerard FitzGerald believed superior fitness was the difference in the end, with his players able to run out the match marginally better than Tassie.

For most of the day though, FitzGerald was a worried man and he had cause to be.

But it looked anything but a clash between teams at either ends of the ladder.

The Roosters' biggest headache came in time-on as Tasmania put on three unanswered goals to take a stranglehold on the match.

North Ballarat need a series of surges to get back into contention, but 14 second-half goals was an encouraging outcome for FitzGerald.