How do you asses that game, Adam?

It was a good win, yep. Really pleased. We knew what Carlton were all about. (They've won) five out of the last seven games, their brand is pretty obvious, so we’re very happy to get away with the win.

They were on top of you early and then you went on a blitz. Where do you think the game changed when you were able to kick away from them?

I thought the contest, around the stoppages, we were really struggling. It was a battle for most of the night. But when we got supply we looked pretty dangerous in the front half. Our tall backs, at stages, had good influence on the game and when we got some supply I thought our high half forwards looked pretty quick tonight. We were pretty efficient in front of goals.

Your efficiency made the difference in most of the game?

Well we both kicked the same amount of points, but I think when the game was on the line for us in the second quarter, but the maturity of the group too. We’re a fair bit older, we’re on different pathways this year, anyway. The boys found another level. I’d love us to do that a bit longer, but I’m not sure if it’s possible in this day and age with the way that teams come out and teams are playing. There’s nothing easy about the game at the moment.

So your best today – is that the level that you think is your best?

It’s really hard to say what your best looks like. We get the win and we move on. I don’t really buy into ‘we’re building’, it’s more like every game is different. So we had to play slightly differently at stages today and next week will be the same. So we’re just scratching away trying to get that top four spot.

Is it more pleasing considering you had to respond to that early challenge and you overcame that?

I’m not surprised. It doesn’t matter who we play, but Carlton, in particular, are in a really good space. There’s good belief; they’d won three in a row, I’m sure they had a lot to play for as well. Like I said, we’re on different journeys at the moment, but we really respect their talent and their system is pretty good. So we knew there was going to be a challenge.

Is there any emphasis on trying to get a top-two spot? The race is pretty tight between you and Brisbane?

No, we just want to keep winning. We want to finish as high as we can.

Were you frustrated by the last two goals? You lost a full percentage point in the last few minutes of the game.

Did we? I mean it’s hard to concern yourself about percentage. But I thought we left a couple of goals out there at stages. Both teams looked really tired in the last quarter, it wasn’t a great spectacle. Really disappointed about that but really pleased about the win.

How difficult is it with percentage? You can’t focus on it but you have to focus on it at the same time - it’ll be the difference between two teams?

We don’t even talk about it, really. If we keep winning we’ll be right.

What did you make of Liam Ryan’s mark?

It was a great mark, wasn’t it? Mark of the year, you reckon? What do you get for that? A car still? I could see it from a mile away. From the centre bounce running with the flight, he must have run 20 metres, 30 metres, full-tilt and he’s 74kgs. (It was a) magnificent mark; (I'm) really proud of that.

Is that a side of his game that goes a bit unnoticed at times? He puts his body on the line quite a few times in situations like that?

He’s probably suffered some criticism as well, even Grand Final day there was a missed opportunity, so I think he’s really brave, I do. His courage in the air is first-class and what’s he played, 25 games? 30 games? So he’s still got a lot to learn, a lot to grow with, but his performance today was one of the reasons why we won. So really proud of that.

You must be really happy with how the forward line is functioning at the moment?

Yes, it’s about how you get your supply as well. They’re putting really good pressure on, when we do that we look dangerous. I thought that with North last week in the first quarter our attack on the contest and keeping the ball in our half is really important going forward. So they’re defending well and they look dangerous in offence as well.

Do you get (Jamie) Cripps back next week?

We do, Jamie’s back next week. So we have to find a way to get him in.

How does that change the balance of that forward line? Do you go a bit smaller?

We’ll have to look at it. I haven’t really reflected on how individuals went today, but that’s a great problem to have.

Kennedy kicks a bag last week, Kennedy kicks one this week and everyone chips in. You’ve been getting a variety of scoring for most of your forwards. Is that the key to it at the moment you don’t rely on one or two guys? 

The way they approach the game, our forwards, it’s pretty selfless. If we can share the load that’s great, that makes us even more dangerous. They mix up their positions but they’re all pretty clear on what their roles are. Like I said we probably missed a couple of opportunities to kick a couple more today but we’ll take what we got.

You mentioned stoppages earlier, is there any other areas you want to see improvement over the next three weeks as you tune up (for finals)?

We weren’t great today at stoppages, we got touched up. So last week, or the week before, we’ve had good days. We’re scoring from stoppages really well, for me it’s really hard to say let’s just fix this one part because next week it’ll be good. We’re just trying to play total footy I suppose, but that doesn’t happen.  So we’ll look at that, it’s one of Carlton’s real strengths. It was probably the biggest issue we had for most of the day – how do we stop the clearance domination and metres from clearances. We had pretty good metres from turnovers, but that might change next week so I won’t over analyse it. 

There’s no other aspects then that are really front of mind?

We just want to be good at everything. We’ll hone in on some things during the week, we’ll look at Adelaide, what are they good at, how can we stop that. What do we need to focus on and get on with it.

Do you compare yourself where you’re at now to where you were last year given what you achieved last year ultimately?

Wins I think we’re probably the same. I think we had 14 wins this time last year. That’s about as far as I go with it. I think the one thing our players have learned, or have got, is a fair bit of resilience. They’ve been in situations before where they’ve been challenged and they’ve come through. So that’s something you can’t buy, so having that experience, like I said earlier with Carlton, we’re a fair bit more experienced. So while we’ve still got these boys and we can draw upon some times to step up and they’ve been through situations before. So that’s probably the difference from this year to last year.