Michael Walters stood up when it meant most in Freo’s one-point win against Brisbane in a Sir Doug Nicholls Round thriller on Sunday at Optus Stadium.

The forward’s shot on goal after the siren swung in to hit the post, but it didn’t matter because it gave Freo the win by the slimmest of margins. 

Walters’ mark on the lead was set up by a number of players, including defender Luke Ryan collecting the ball in space inside 50 to hand off to Langdon, who delivered to Walters with 27 seconds on the clock.

Walters said that he was confused to see Ryan so far up the ground ahead of the winning play, but credited Ryan for his initiative.

“It was quite weird as Luke Ryan came into the forward line and I’ve never really seen that before,” Walters said.

“I was sort of wondering what he was doing there, but for him to be there - Ross always tells us to take the game on and he was on the 50 metre line and all by himself.

“The kick (from David Mundy) got to him and he gave the handball to Ed and I knew that Ed always lowers his eyes and I had to make a lead and he would put it there.”

Walters said that kicking the winning score didn’t make him the hero.

He especially paid tribute to Ryan, who put in one of his very best performances with 32 disposals, 13 contested possessions, seven rebound 50s and 16 intercept possessions.

He also praised fellow defender Nathan Wilson, who led Freo with an impressive 758 metres gained and 30 disposals while Bradley Hill delivered on the wing with 31 disposals, six marks and 757 metres gained.

“It wasn’t all on the back of that moment, it was on the back of the boys putting in a consistent effort today,” Walters said.

“Nathan Wilson took his game to another level tonight. Luke Ryan and Bradley Hill were instrumental in our win.

“It wasn’t just off that (winning) point, it was good to kick it, especially in Indigenous Round. It just shows the hard work the boys put in throughout the week to really turn that game around.

“We stuck in with the Brisbane Lions and that’s all we wanted to do, we wanted to achieve that.

“I thought our ball movement was so much different to last week and it was good to get that win.”