You must be thrilled with that effort?
Of course. I thought we really turned up the heat in the second half, the third quarter in particular. Asked our players to own the ball a bit more in the contest in particular. The pressure we put on them inside our front half just created a lot of opportunities. I’m really proud of the group.

You had your captain who has had issues with goal-kicking, kick the winning goal. You want his hands on the ball in a clearance situation and just do what he has to do to win the game. How important is that for him in the goals and you as a team?
I am not sure, time will tell. But one thing I know is that he always stands up for us in big moments. He always wants the ball in his hands and he always does the right thing when the game is on the line. So, it doesn’t surprise me that he wanted it in his hands and he was in the right spot. I thought he was enormous. He has been a really good player this year, I just think that the goalkicking thing has blurred his output and I think that is unfair because his output around the ground, his output inside 50 to be able to get those shots on goal has been first-class. Tonight was no exception.

13 clearances (from Fyfe) is a massive effort in those conditions?
I thought he was important cog in our midfield that got on top, especially in the third quarter and gave our forwards a really good look, it gave us field position. It got us back in the game and put us in a really good position at three-quarter time. They challenged us in the last quarter and I was really proud of the group to hit the front and then finish the game off.

How good was it to see Josh Treacy back himself in a big moment after a tough night?
Tough night, but in saying that he would have got a lot of confidence out of a lot of really important contests that he gave us. He had to go back with the flight of the ball a couple of times and half contests which gave our smalls a chance. He missed one in the first quarter which would have been a good one to get his night off and going. It was a great kick in the last quarter, he is a great kick of the footy, so it didn’t surprise me that it went through. He really stood up in that moment.

The battle between Franklin and Logue, I know the fans loved watching it. Your thoughts as a coach?
I loved parts of it, I loved the parts where Griff got him. Griff had 13 possession gains, and he was playing on one of the best forwards of the generation. I think early on he gave him a little too much space to hit up on him, and he relied on his speed to close him down those marks which I think he adjusted to. Then he lost some critical contests especially in the last quarter where Buddy made him pay. It was a great tussle. We were thinking about changing the match up but for Griff’s development it was great to play on him and he was winning enough big moments himself. It was a great match up and a key part of the game.

How about Rory Lobb? A lot of individual efforts tonight, but he had some critical moments
He was outstanding. I think he has been in reasonable form without getting the reward in terms of marks inside 50 and goals. I thought he had some really good moments last week. I think his training standards have been first-class, he has been imposing himself on the contest at training. It’s great for him to impose himself on the game tonight, I thought his contest work was great. When he didn’t mark them, the ball came to predictable areas and allowed our smalls to get to work. That is something we push with him and Tabs during the week.

What did you change broadly with your forward line?
We tried to play our talls a little bit skinnier to give us a contest short and a contest long. We tried to set up our forwards a little bit more to get in and crumb. I showed them a clip at half time where we were second guessing ourselves with our pressure and to trust that everyone behind you will do the work to cover the exits and get to work. We had 12 tackles inside 50 in the second half and it brought a bit of perceived pressure to Sydney by the end of the game. It set up our win our thought.

How did you view Michael Walters moving into the midfield for longer periods?
I thought he was outstanding. I thought he used the ball really well, but it was set up off the back of his contest work. He had some really pivotal contests where he had to win the ball and look after the footy. It feels like a fair few times where he was under pressure, he took those balls and he got us a stoppage, where it could have possibly gone to them and lost field position. I thought he was massive and to be honest, he has been building to a game like that for a while.

You controlled the third term pretty well, when you left the box at three- quarter time, did you feel like you had gotten the reward?
It probably felt in the box like we needed one more, and the Cerra goal gave us that. Buddy missing that long shot just before three-quarter time helped too. It has been a bit of an issue over the past couple of weeks, getting bang for our buck. I think we had 20 inside 50s in that quarter, so we will keep working on it. I think there were some snaps and opportunities we could make more of so we will keep working on that. I think we kicked the ones that we had to this week. In the end it was enough.

How is Matt Taberner’s injury?
He has given the ankle a bit of a tweak. He clearly came back on and he wasn’t able to see out the game so that is always some sort of concern. We will get him and scanned and see how it pulls up.

What about Alex Pearce at WAFL today?
My understanding is that he got a little bit sore in the ankle he’s injured. Once he got sore, we took no risks with him. If that costs him an extra week or two, then so be it. We want to make sure we are really slow with his build and get him cherry ripe.

Can you believe two talls in one day?
It’s not ideal. I cross my fingers and hope Tabs is okay. He is a pretty tough unit so he might be able to push through it.