What's that feeling like?
Really exciting in the rooms. We just felt like (we were) consistently more like us and probably our form in our losses over the last couple of weeks have been probably highlighted by the fact we’ve let ourselves down in a quarter or less than a quarter in last week. Today we just didn’t have that, we were consistent across the four quarters, its our first four quarter performance for a while. In the last couple of weeks we’ve got back to basics with our footy and that’s built off the back of our contest and our team defence. I thought, largely, we defended the ground really well today and competed our backsides off really. It was just continual competing around the ball so I thought we had some really good performances in roles, so really proud of that effort.

You dominated contested possession in the first quarter but couldn’t get past Tom Stewart, what did you change at quarter time?
It’s not always easy just to make sure you’ve got a match up or someone on a player like that because they’re so proactive. Really it came down to being a little bit more predictable with our entries and more composed with our entries in that second quarter which allowed us to get multiple players there rather than kicking it to one-on-ones or kicking it straight to him at times. We probably realised going into the game we wouldn’t have an aerial advantage inside our forward 50 but we felt like we had a ground ball advantage so I think that came more to fruition more in the second quarter and we were a bit more predictable with our entries. Our talls were able to compete which brought our smalls into it at ground level. He’s a gun (Stewart), and sometimes it’s just hard to stop, we went into the game understanding he’s going to take some intercepts and nullify some of our ball movement and De Koning’s going to do the same thing, and Kolodjashnij’s going to do the same thing, it’s just 'don't get caught up in that play the next moment', and I thought whenever they were able to intercept we just played the next moment. That was snapping the defence and making sure they didn't achieve anything with their ball movement, so I thought we were right on task with that sort of stuff today.

That’s twice in two years Justin you’ve come down here and won really tight games, what does that say about the mindset of the group?
We’ve got a group that, even though we’ve had the ups and downs this year, we’ve really remained connected to improving our footy and when you go away and play in a familiar environment where you’ve had some success it helps build a proactive mindset which helps me sell a message during the week and a gameplan during the week because they’ve all had success achieving it in the past. We were disappointed last week, we reviewed it hard but we moved on pretty quick and framed this week up early, and just saw a total commitment to it from the players.

You've beat the reigning Premiers twice in one season, what does that say about this group and what this group could become?
We’re going to go through our ups and downs and what I’ve said all along is I think our best footy is good enough, it’s just our consistency has let us down this year. We haven’t found the right formula often enough whether it be structure or focuses. I know a lot has been made externally about our form and where we are going as a football club but what has made me most proud is how connected the playing group has been to improving our footy and helping each other get better. Today’s good reward for players who’ve put in a mountain of work.

Can you think of many better goals than Michael Frederick’s with the game on the line?
He missed one in the second quarter that was easier so he made up for it. He’s got a touch of class, hasn’t he? I don’t know how many possessions he had but when he brings his speed to both sides of the ball he has a big impact in the forward line and quite often he does it with limited possessions. The goal was just reward for the mountain of work he does up and down the ground on offence and defence.

What about Alex Pearce's game? He's been receiving a fair bit of criticism recently.
I think it’s unfair criticism of him. Today he did a great job, he got his positioning right and I thought he got back to being really decisive with backing his first read of the contest and when he could attack the ball he attacked ball. I think he had 14 possession gains, it’s just a super game from the Captain. I’m proud of the way he’s handled himself, proud of the way under criticism he’s deflected and put all his energy into his teammates and been a great leader. It was good to see him play well today.

I understand criticism but what you see on the weekend is such a small fraction of what it takes to be a leader as well. He’s been a tremendous leader in all aspects of leadership throughout the year, throughout the weeks. He’s really invested in helping us get where we want to get to as a footy club and helping his teammates. What you see on the weekend is a small fraction of that, it was good that we saw the really strong stuff today because it just highlights what he can be and I’m just really proud of him.

What about Luke Jackson’s efforts today both in the air and on the ground?
Super. He was a man possessed at ground level. I thought he competed hard in the ruck contest but like I’ve said all along with 'Jacko', his strength is at ground level a lot of the time and that’s why we’ve tried to play him in the midfield throughout the year. It’s made it hard with Sean (Darcy) being out but his work at ground level to harass the opposition, intercept the ball and then continually put his head over it and get the ball going our way is something you rarely see from someone his size. He’s a unique athlete, unique footballer and shows his worth to the team.

Do you fly home thinking ‘what if’ at the start of the year or 'what could be' for next year as you’re moving forward?
Probably just review the game and focus on next week.