St Kilda coach Ross Lyon has conceded that luck went his team's way with the overturning of a late goal in Friday night's thrilling four-point qualifying final win over Geelong at the MCG.
But Lyon also believes the Saints would have been stiff to lose and thoroughly deserved their victory which has earned them a fortnight's rest ahead of the club's fifth preliminary final in seven seasons.
Trailing by four points, the Cats celebrated as though the win was theirs when skipper Cameron Ling slammed the ball through from 30 metres out with just a minute of play remaining.
But umpire Matt Stevic ruled that Saints defender James Gwilt had been pushed in the back by Cameron Mooney off the ball and the goal was disallowed.
While standing the mark, the volatile Mooney berated Stevic with repeated claims that "you just cost us the game", but afterwards, Lyon had no complaints.
"As the play unfolded I thought there was a free kick there, there's no doubt about that," he told his post-match media conference.
"I wasn't sure whether it had been paid or not."
"It was a tough night for everybody, umpires and both teams."
"You always need a little bit of luck after you've worked you hardest."
"We did a lot right to say that we were deserved victors."
Lyon blamed a lack of discipline after the Saints led by 33 points early in the third quarter for inviting the Cats back into the contest.
"Thirty-three points can be whittled away in five, 10 minutes of footy," Lyon said.
"It went to the wire again against what's a great team and it fell our way in the end."
"Not to take anything away I thought for three quarters we were pretty bloody good, but we've got a lot to work on."
"They're such a strong-bodied contested ball team that they dominated the last quarter."
"Our clearance work was good but they were just stripping us of the ball and going the other way and that put us under real pressure."
"Thank god for the week off to regenerate and prepare for our next opposition."
Asked whether the win had eased a path for his team to what would be a second consecutive grand final, Lyon said: "It's interesting you talking about grand finals."
"All I know is my next game is a prelim final and we're going to have an elite opponent."
"I haven't got that luxury, I work one week at a time and we prepare, you know what, it's going to be Round 24."
"(The week off) can be good for you, it can be bad for you, but if you don't get it right and you don't work hard and you don't prepare and you relax you get brought undone very quickly."
Lyon said he left it until the last minute before deciding that veteran defender Steven Baker was not quite up to playing coming off a nine-week suspension.
He said that Baker was available but "sore and tight".
"He didn't know what the final decision was until he walked through the door and we had a discussion with how he was feeling," Lyon said.