How satisfying was that to come down and beat Narrm at the MCG?
It is a great result. It probably didn’t reach any great spectacle in terms of free-flowing ball movement. I was just really proud of the way we scrapped, contest-to-contest and won a different style of game to what we have been confronted with in the last couple of weeks. I thought it was a really mature performance where we just hung in there and like I said scrapped, and made the most of our opportunities.

How satisfying was it, Melbourne came at your pretty hard in that last quarter, but you were able to withstand their pressure?
I thought they got right on top at stoppages and started getting some momentum but I just thought we fought and when we play our best footy we fight for everything. We’ve been pretty good at closing out games when opposition have come at us and I thought we showed some good maturity to fight the game out.

How impressive was Luke Jackson considering it would have been pretty emotional time playing his old side?
He was super. He obviously played a different sort of role when Sean went off and we played him a bit more ruck time. I just thought he competed, followed up and for his size he is a great ground-level player. The goal he kicked in the third quarter was massive for us. He had some big moments throughout the game. Our players have really embraced Luke coming into the Club and love him and we all do and he’s just going to improve as a footballer. I thought he had some really big moments today.

In the first quarter we saw him running with Petracca, would we have seen more of that if Sean didn’t go down?
We didn’t have a direct match-up for Petracca. We want to get Luke some opportunities to play as an inside mid. He is a really good ground-level player, he is a good pressure player, he intercepts the footy around the contest with his wingspan and his want to win the ball back. He offers us a lot in that area and that would have just been a by-product of that.

Four in a row now is it too early to start talking or dreaming about the ‘F’ word?
We don’t really get carried away with that. I mean you guys might have said we weren’t going to make the finals or our season was gone but we never focus on that area. We are trying to focus on getting our preparation and our mindset right, week-in-week-out. We have worked really hard to get ourselves back into the season but that’s all we’ve done, we haven’t achieved anything yet.

What has changed in your eyes over the past month?
Mindset. We are playing to win. We’re not playing not to lose. We’re playing to win. Which is a lot of different things and it’s a pretty broad topic, but we have just embraced the chaos of the game and understood that the next moment is your most important moment and we’re treating every contest on its merits and we’re not getting caught up in outcomes and stuff we can’t control.

What’s the latest with Sean Darcy?
He has done his hamstring. We will get him home and get it scanned and give you a timeframe.

What did you make of the makeshift ruck, with Jackson against his old team and Josh Treacy?
Jacko can be a number one ruck in his own right. We’ve needed him down forward and we’ve needed him in the middle of the ground, as well as the second ruck but he is a genuine first ruck. So, I thought he stepped in well. At Peel, when Treacy was back there we tried to get him some minutes as a ruck. He competes really well with his body and I thought he gave us a really good contest in there.

It doesn’t look like Luke Jackson gets phased much, how did he handle the week leading into this game?
Really well and sometimes you wonder whether bringing things up with him is actually the first he has heard of it because he does handle things really well, he doesn’t read a lot of press, he lives in the moment and takes every moment on its merit. You would have to ask him, internally, but he prepared for the things Melbourne could have done to him, whether it was players going after him or the crowd booing him. He prepared for it all and he had a plan in place in case it happened. I don’t think much of it did happen, but he had a plan in place and prepared really well. I thought he approached the week really well. I am pretty sure he was glad to get that first game over and done with.

There were big cheers from the team when you came back in the rooms, was that for him?
Yeah, like I said before they love playing with him. He is a good teammate, he gets to work and works really hard on his game, and he is a competitive animal when he gets out on the field. It’s all the attributes of a good teammate.

What did you think of Jye’s performance is it his time for his Rising Star nomination?
Surely, he wouldn’t get caught up in that and clearly with his consistency he isn’t getting caught up or worried about individual accolades. He is a competitor and he just wants to win and he made the most of some opportunities and hit the scoreboard, but I just thought he competed really well to halve contests against more mature backs and I thought some of his tackles to lock the ball in and get us a forward 50 stoppage were outstanding. He is developing all areas of his game really nicely.

Are you surprised by how quickly he is developing? He missed his first season with that kidney issue, and he has only played 10 or so games.
Maybe for a key forward. I see his work ethic and I see how he goes about his week it doesn’t really surprise me. The weekend is an outcome of the work you put into your preparation and I see him like all our others working their backsides off to get better and improve and the weekend is what you get.

What was it like to have your old mentor Bucks in the coaches’ box and how did that come about?
I worked with ‘Bucks’ at Collingwood and he has taken a real interest in my coaching journey, while I was working under him and since I have been senior coach I wanted to get him around match day and around our preparation, to give me a bit of feedback and help me on my coaching journey. He is a guy with a lot of experience in footy and the more of those guys you can have helping you, the better coach I am going to be.

Was the feedback in-game or more of an observational experience?
No, I will touch base with him during the week on what he thought of the day and what he thought of our coaching setup with our communication in the box and get some feedback on how he thought the day went but he kept pretty quiet in the box.

Was that his idea?
No, there were probably a couple of things. I was really keen to see it happen to help my coaching journey and he was keen for that side of it but he works in the media, he wants to have a look at how we go about things and get to a deeper understanding on how we are trying to play and how some of our players operate. It came about mutually; it has been in the pipeline for a while and this date just fitted in really well.

Did you give him a pre-game address to the players, is that accurate?
No, that is not accurate.

Did you get through unscathed other than Darcy?
Yep.

You’d be happy where you are at heading into the bye with three guys on the injury list, with Darcy a chance to come back for the Richmond game after the bye?
Our medical team have done a great job with our program and fitness program and our players are healthy and they’re fit, that is all you can ask for as a coach.