Everyone is asking how, but can you give us some sort of explanation. You hung in all night and a bit of a frenetic finish?

“Yeah, we did. Really proud of our players. We stuck fat all year really. I think we’ve handled the situation as best we can, tried to just get on with it, stay resilient as a club. I think that paid us back in the last quarter, rather than the numbers that you see. Obviously the shots at goal a lot of the indicators point that we’ll lose a lot of games if we dish up the numbers but the will to win, you can’t underestimate that and I think that’s the players and the leaders, and our backs stood up really well. We must have conceded 60 inside 50s. These games don’t go your way very often and when they do it takes something special and I think everyone stood up when they needed to and everyone tried to play their role as best they could.”

Stating the obvious but Jeremy McGovern, just an incredible performance?

“Pretty good. He’s played every game this year – one of four (who have) – so his continuity is good, he’s in good shape, there’s good pressure up the ground which allows him to play his way. I thought Tom Barrass coming back from his Health and Safety Protocols, all the backs really did their bit, but Gov was pretty special. He’s been special all year.”

You’ve been positive all along but what does actually getting a win do?

“It makes the plane trip (home) a bit easier. It’s relief, obviously, and it’s a bit of reward for the resilience we’re trying to show. Sometimes you don’t get wins when you’re working through these situations, so to get that, we’re alive. We came over here to win and we did, and that’s great, and next week will be just important as this week. Unfortunately we can’t celebrate, that’s our job. But to get through and obviously we’ve played 38, 39 players in three weeks, hopefully we’ll get some real positives from individuals in the next month or two, or the next year or two you’ll see some players. (Patrick) Naish and (Hugh) Dixon today, they weren’t at the club five weeks ago and they were important for us tonight.”

Andrew Gaff said during the week the spirit at the club had not been affected, he made the point a couple of times, can you talk about how you’ve keep morale up?

“It’s not just me. I’m one of the leaders at the club so the whole club in general has tried to embrace the situation as best we could. It’s really hard to bottle, spirit. What is it? How do you cultivate it? How do you keep it alive? I’ve seen it at its all-time best at clubs, and at West Coast, and I’ve seen it when it’s fractured a little bit – and it’s as strong as ever. That’s important. I wish I could keep it forever, but sometimes it does wane a little bit when you don’t win. Credit to our leaders, in particular, and the leadership of the club. Not me, per se, but more the football department, the whole club in general has been right behind us. Everyone’s got our backs, which is important.”

Is it right or too simplistic to say today was about that spirit? The numbers and way the game panned out will say most often you will lose those games.

“The intangibles in the game. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing local footy or playing in the Grand Final. Probably 85 per cent of what we do is the same as every other club. Then that last 10-15 per cent that’s the special stuff. You see Melbourne have got it; Brisbane have got it. Teams around the top of the ladder you can see what they do and how they play for each other. It’s just a challenge when you’re not winning to maintain that. It sounds a bit fluffy but it’s really important if you can get that above your strategy and gameplan.”

Willie Rioli has basically missed two years before this year, is it underestimated how he’s returned?

“We’ve missed him. It was a semi-final against Geelong 2019 (he was missing from). I don’t feel like we’ve been the same since. He was important for us tonight. He’s dealt with it a lot, obviously some of it self-inflicted, but we’ve put our arms around him as best we can and he was always going to pay us back with the way he plays. He loves the club. He feels at home, feels like it’s a sanctuary when he’s there and I’m not surprised he’s playing well.”

What did you say to the midfield because five of your best midfielders are sitting back home?

“Matty Knights and Jarrad Schofield took over that, so we back in the coaches and we’ve got a new coaching group so they went to work. The roles don’t change, just the personnel did. A few hairy moments throughout the game, but they would’ve learned and grown. Some of those guys would be sub, maybe not quite in the action, so to come in and just play, show some confidence, back yourself in, play to your strengths – all the things you want to hear as a player – that’s what they did.”

Luke Edwards, can you give us an update there?

“He’s coming off groins from last year, OP. So the worry is he might’ve aggravated that.”

How many players do you get back?

“Hopefully we get Yeo, Shuey, Kelly, Jamie Cripps maybe, Oscar Allen possibly. ‘Gaffy’ (Andrew Gaff) is probably another week away. There will be at least some conversations this week. Might be able to slip a few back in.”

Josh Kennedy – have you seen a better five possession game?

“He’s got a lot of grey in his beard, Josh, more than me. But for him to play, six-day break, I came in on Monday and said ‘I don’t know if you should play this week’, he said ‘no, I need the continuity, I feel good’. So he kicked some really important goals. Let’s not beat around the bush, Collingwood kicked 14 points, we kicked three, so reality is still there. We know what we went through today, but our players kicking goals at important times that’s part of winning and being a good side, so I’m glad we converted.”