Ross, what does that win mean for the club?
It’s four points really simply. It just highlights our growth in a 12-month period with a young team, 23 goals in a row (conceded against Geelong in round 22 last year) what was made of that even though we bounced back pretty strongly the next week, so we’re looking for consistency in a performance like today. It was good to have a debutant, they’re ladder leaders and to hear our passionate fans is fantastic. It’s like it was 100,000 here so it just really fuels the players and if we keep driving performance and improve over a period of time that all awaits them. It’s pleasing for a young group, pleasing for everyone that really made the effort to get here today, a thunderstorm predicted I think, so the weather in the end I think was pretty good. It was great for our members and partners and everyone that attended. It’s a long, hard year for the Cats, they’re on top of the ladder, they came over, so I thought they never gave up, we just took some opportunities and put them under some pressure. Then from there you‘ve got to get a bit desperate to catch the scoreboard and it just opened them up a little bit. I thought we competed fiercely, put a lot of pressure on and that was the simple aim. We aimed to make them defend. Early we couldn’t find them, they had a few easy goals but I thought we just fought on to get some ascendency, there’s no magic.

Given the outs you had and the opponent, is that the most significant win with the rebuild?
Well I haven’t thought about it yet to be honest. You can make your own judgement on that, everyone makes judgements continuously. I haven’t got one, I’ve just got to go away and assess. I wouldn’t have thought so, we’re disappointed that we haven’t been able to maintain, we understand the reasons why but in saying that it was a good performance. There’s been good growth over a long period of time. That gets lost on the week to week treadmill and the week to week hyperbole but over a 12-week period it has been significant but we’re already onto our next opponent. We’ll enjoy here and then start preparing for St Kilda. We’ve reenergised a little bit and it will be a significant challenge. It’s just great to see Jason Carter out of the Next Generation Academy, another debutant, I thought he competed fiercely, seeing him happy, victorious and exhausted it’s a nice feeling.

There was an ovation for you as you came off the ground at the end which you acknowledged, what was that like as a moment?
It’s always nice, we’ve all got a little sign hanging around our neck as Dennis Pagan used to say ‘make me feel important’ so I don’t know if they were the loud minority or loud majority, I think everyone will interpret that how they want to.

Just on the fans there has been a lot of stuff on talkback and things like that, it must be nice to know there is still love for you here?
I never doubt myself, I never doubt my coaching, never doubt the application, I never doubt the group. Are there challenges within that? Yes. I’ve spoken about social media before and the rabbit holes you go down on Twitter and Instagram. It all depends on what rabbit hole you want to reach down and what you want to pull out and what you want to put up in lights. It’s all selective but I’m not on any of it so, I buy the Australian and Financial Review and read them but other than that I don’t touch them. I know there is noise around and at the end of the day it’s never as good and never as bad, I think that’s been proven again.

Does it feel like this win has helped ease the pressure somewhat?
I wouldn’t have thought so, I think the people that are supportive are supportive and I think the people that are driving what they want to drive are going to drive what they want to drive. I see that in this room as I look around. The noise will be the noise.

What was the emotion like in the last quarter as those goals were going through in the box?
We were pretty level, we are hard nosed pros. I’ve been to four grand finals, a few preliminary finals. Home and away games don’t get you too excited.

Was the last quarter something special for you?
Not for me, for the group it was and for the fans. My job is to coach until the last second and that’s what I tend to do.

In terms of belief how much does the group gain from a game like this?
I don’t think you can read too much into it except that we had a good performance today. The challenge is to keep going, it’s never as good or never as bad. You get confidence from action, it’s just a feeling. We will get on the plane to Melbourne and feel more confident about our ability to deliver next week then when we arrived today. You don’t need confidence to be successful, there is only one thing that counts and that’s action. The feelings didn’t get it done out there today, not matter how much the players wanted to win for the club and themselves. The only think that counts is action and that’s what people lose sight off.

It does put you back in the mix for a top eight spot, how much do you use that as a carrot to the players?
To be honest, zero. Take care of your actions, take care of your processes and the wins take care of themselves. Today we got it right and we got it right for a long period of time. I wish it counted for next week but we all know it doesn’t.

How did you rate Fyfe as a leader today?
I thought our leadership was outstanding today. I thought (Nat) Fyfe, (Michael) Walters, (David) Mundy, (Reece) Conca and (Joel Hamling) were great.

Mundy had a unique game, he was up forward at seemed a bit starved of it but came good after that. How did you assess his game?
It was a critical role he gave leadership to a young group and drove performance today. By how we measure we thought he’d been effective all game, he sacrificed his desire to be in the midfield for the greater good of the team and the club. That’s what great people do for you.

You lacked a few recognised forwards today and ended up kicking nearly 100-points, can you tell us what you wanted out of your forward line today?
I just wanted them to compete and bring the ball to ground. I think the conditions helped that, they were quite tall. Their ability to bring it to ground and compete was strong. That was a starting point, that’s your foundation. We spoke about that during the week. We wanted to compete and build our game from the competition.

In the third quarter Fyfe drifted forward rather than moved forward, is that how it worked with those marks he took?
Fyfey just says ‘let me do my thing’ and I let him do his thing. I let the great ones go really.

Were his two big marks critical in the third quarter?
It certainly didn’t hurt.