Geelong coach Chris Scott has praised a courageous performance from his charges in an 11-point win over Fremantle, although he conceded the Cats rode their luck in a dramatic final term.
A former assistant at Fremantle, rookie coach Scott was returning to Patersons Stadium for the first time since making the move to Geelong.
And, while the Cats weren't quite the slick machine of yesteryear, they still produced some quality moves of flowing football and were much more clinical in front of goal, particularly compared to the Dockers, who booted 3.9 in the second half.
Indeed, Fremantle dominated the last quarter with 15 clearances to five and 17 inside-50s to 10. But when they booted six behinds in the last quarter, many from gettable set shots, it was enough to ensure the Cats held on for Scott to maintain his 100 percent record as senior coach.
"It was a really courageous win," Scott said. "Not sure whether in a lot of ways, it was a win we deserved."
"I think you could mount a pretty good argument to say at the end there, they probably should have won the game."
"They had a lot of shots that they missed and in a way we feel fortunate to have won."
"We clearly have a group of players that aren't quite at their best at the moment, the way they're using the ball."
"The thing that I'm still a little bit in awe of is just the strength of character in our players. They don't give up, they hate losing."
"(So we're) very happy with the character our guys showed, but more relief than jubilation this week."
Scott used Steve Johnson as an example of the character in his side, saying the freakish forward should have come from the ground after being on the receiving end of a monster hit from Dockers' giant Aaron Sandilands during the second quarter.
"I could understand if he didn't get up," Scott said, having delivered a few bumps of his own during his time with the Brisbane Lions.
"And he was pretty sore and he's pretty sore now. I mean we were tempted to sub him 'cause he just couldn't move at half-time, but he toughed it out."
"Now he's one of those freakish players, but maybe outside of Geelong, the determination that he shows is a little bit underrated."
Johnson, himself, light-heartedly described the incident on Twitter after the game.
"I think I tipped sepoy today (in the Golden Slipper)," he tweeted. "Got one more tip! If u see a 120kg man coming ur way in the near future get out of the way!!"
In a further boost to the Cats, Scott said injured trio Cameron Mooney, Tom Lonergan and Joel Selwood, who were all withdrawn from the selected side on Friday afternoon, should be fit for next week's clash with Port Adelaide.
Scott said the decision to withdraw Selwood, who was concussed last week against the Saints, had been a particularly tough one.
"As everyone knows with concussion unfortunately, we're kind of guessing a little bit," Scott said.
"In the end, our position with Joel was not so much can we rule him out because of the symptoms he's got."
"It was, we needed to ask ourselves the question, are we positive that he's okay to play."
"And, in the end we couldn't be sure, we were very close but it was just, we definitively couldn't say that he would be okay."