Are you proud of your ability to come back from 22 points down, with so many blokes out and win that game?

It was a great game, it felt like a heavyweight battle, for the boys to do what they did in the end, both teams I think looked pretty tired towards the end there, our crowd really helped, 50,000, it was a great response from our players in the last 10 minutes. We hung in there, probably Richmond overall played a bit better than us for the four quarters, but when it mattered most, I thought we made the most of it.

To put it simply, goal kicking, is that what’s won it for you? You barely missed for the entire night and Josh Kennedy kicks the goal from the pocket to win the game.

Goal kicking is important, we train it a lot, yeah that’s not everything, but the last quarter I think we had three inside 50s for three goals at one stage, and I think we had 18 or 19 inside 50s for whatever we kicked, so probably accuracy kept us in it for the first three quarters, and then field positioning got us over the line in the end.

Looked like Josh Kennedy was a spring chicken tonight, just roaming up the field, can you just talk a bit about his role?

Josh – when he’s fresh, he’s good. So, he might need a week off every second week. And that goal, I mean, who else would you rather have a shot for goal like that? Maybe Dom (Sheed). But I think ‘JK’s’ ability to ice the game like that was very special. But there was a lot of work around all that, it could’ve gone either way. Either way, I think we played with a lot of spirit, the last couple of weeks in particular, our young kids have stood up as much as our leaders, and the collective resolve after losing a couple in a row, I feel like it’s as good as it’s ever been.

06:47

 Foley and Edwards two that really stood up today?

Yeah, Luke Edwards, good player, second game, what did he have? Nine or 10 touches in the last, looked composed with the ball. He might even get a Rising Star nomination, which we haven’t had for a while. Foley’s composure as well, and Harry Edwards, is a five or six gamer who is holding down a key position defence, albeit on another younger player but I thought he had his moments as well. So, really pleased we’ve got to play a couple of kids the last few weeks, and we’ve had some success.

Was it a desperate last couple of minutes and the reaction on the siren was huge as well, did you feel like there was a lot on the line?

I just felt like it was a great game, we hung in there, Richmond are the best side in the comp, let’s be honest, they’re at full strength, they play a brand that’s really hard to stop, quite often the game’s on their terms a lot, so our goal was to try and get on our terms as much as we could, didn’t quite get that right for three quarters, but the last quarter we dug in and played with plenty of sprit. So yeah, I’m not surprised there was elation after the game.

03:23

It’s a classic eight-point game in terms of the ladder, in top four, how important was it for that?

Oh nah, the top four stuff, we’re just trying to make finals at the moment, we’ve said this plenty of times, we just want to qualify as quickly as we can, so tonight was important because it’s four points, no different than last week, Richmond have been on the road for three weeks, they’ve had two travel games from Sydney and both of us were looking like we needed the BYE, so we’ll put it in perspective, but it was an important win for us.

What will the BYE do for you in terms of refreshing blokes, getting blokes closer to playing as well?

Players, hopefully the Bulldogs game we might get five or six players back for that, will be available, we’ll see how we manage all that, we need a break, our players need a break, our coaching and footy department need a break, so we’ll embrace the next three or four days we have off, and then we’ll come back and reload for the Bulldogs.

The fixture change, does that work in your favour? You’ve taken the points against Richmond and now you get the break to freshen up to play the Bulldogs.

On reflection, I suppose the break’s been perfectly timed, but like I said, I think the Tigers, I think we helped out them bringing the game forward, it was a tough challenge to do it off three weeks, so I’ve got full respect for the footy club, very humble on field and the way they went about it was as we expected.

You look at Elliot Yeo, his ability to come back this year, he had five centre clearances, including the last one, big moment and he stands up. Is that just what you need from your key players when they come back from injury?

No doubt we’ve missed Yeo, we haven’t had him for a year. Obviously Luke Shuey’s been unavailable and ‘TK’ (Tim Kelly) for a few weeks. But Yeoy, we brought him back at the right time, we’ve managed his minutes to the point where he could play the whole last quarter tonight, and he didn’t let us down, so he’s a big game player, he’s important because he’s tough.

Kennedy’s final goal, did it remind you at all of the 2018 Grand Final, just going coast to coast?

Yeah, I suppose, bit different, a Grand Final is a bit bigger than tonight, what reminded me of Grand Finals was ‘Dusty’ (Dustin Martin) getting it with 30 seconds to go, so I think that play, Harry Edwards was part of that play, wasn’t he? That was special tonight, that’s for sure.

02:26

Just on the goal kicking, what’s the secret, how do you train it?

We train it a lot, we try and get shots from good spots, and then we’ve got good players.

There’s a lot of talk about sports science versus how many shots you can take?

The old school people are saying sports science, it’s rubbish. We can kick as much as we want, we have for years. So don’t let anyone say that. Our boys can have as many kicks as they like, and that’s been for eight years, so don’t buy into that stuff. Coming in on your day off and doing goal kicking, that probably doesn’t happen, but we put it in our program and our forwards value it, and we still missed a couple.

Who does the most?

They all do the same. ‘JK’ probably is the most prepared in that space.

Josh Kennedy one from the pocket Nic Naitanui one from the pocket, a couple from outside 50, the confidence when they get the ball in their hands must be enormous?

They’re talented players. So, our race at Mineral Resources Park, the race to go inside is right where ‘JK’ kicked that goal, literally the door, so any spot on the ground that's probably the spot I reckon he’d like to take it.