As it happened: Dees pip Blues at the death, Dogs sneak past GWS, Freo account for Eagles, Crows overpower Roos, Cats smash Suns

So there you have it. The day finished with one of the best games of the season and the Blues are now in a massive fight for their finals survival.

After snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, Melbourne are second on the ladder heading into Sunday, and they’re a chance of staying there if Sydney beat Collingwood tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Blues will probably slip to eighth tomorrow, assuming Richmond defeat Hawthorn at the MCG.

That means Carlton will take on arch rivals Collingwood next Sunday for a spot in the finals, in what is basically an elimination final for them.

And if the Bulldogs beat the Hawks next Sunday, the Blues will almost certainly have to beat the Pies to make the top eight.

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin spoke to the media after the game...

Q: How’s the heart rate?
A: Yes, it is coming down now. Oh, footy is a great game, isn’t it? Like it is full of emotion. It is the second week in a row that we have played in a finals-like game. The tackle pressure, the intensity around the ball, the defensive nature of the game. It is just a cracking game of footy. Our players have worked incredibly hard to continue to be in this situation and obviously tonight was an important night for us to win a close game of footy. We haven’t done that all year, really. To win a real close game and to show enormous character as a group. I think this is the type of win that this group can embody and continue to move forward.

Q: Is a win like that driving the emotions of this feeling?
A: I think they are important because you can draw on these experiences as you go forward. Yes, we have needed one of these experiences to be on the better end of. As I said, it was a great game of footy. Either team could have won. But in the end, this is the type of grit, the character that you need to show. We will grab hold of this, we will learn from it and we use the energy that we created tonight to propel us forward.

Q: What about Jake Melksham? From the outside he seems like an unlikely hero. How pleasing was that to see the way he has played tonight?
A: Yes, look, obviously he is a bit of a maligned player but he has worked incredibly hard. In his last month of footy for us, I think he has embodied a lot about our group. We have Jake Melksham who has been able to come in, not only played a role for us, he played on good players in the last month, Darcy Moore, Aliir Aliir. To impact the scoreboard, he has worked so hard to impact this team and he is getting what he deserves in the game. There is him and Jayden Hunt who have come in hand to fight and scrap their way into the team and they are playing to win and they are playing their role incredibly well. I’m really proud of both those guys.

Q: You obviously like that match-up with Weitering.
A: Look, he has been doing it for the last month. He has been doing it well. The thinking is we haven’t got Tom McDonald just to give us another aerial contest. He is a goalkicker. He grew up through the middle part of his career executing that role incredibly well and it is something we have drawn back on in the last six or seven weeks and he has embraced it.

Melbourne’s four-goal hero Jake Melksham spoke to Channel Seven after the game...

Q: Congratulations on your win and also your performance.
A: Thank you. There is a lot of emotion down here at the moment. We were just talking off air either way, whatever way that went, it was massive for either team. For us to stick to tasks like we did at the end, we executed our win the game play. Kozzy kicks a great goal and we are standing here talking about how good it was. It was awesome.

Q: You talk about little things being enormous things. You are never quite sure what they are going to be. Gee, there are a lot of little moments tonight - I mean Phil Davis was talking about your body craft there. Just the smothers, the touches, the tap-ones, the little hand balls, they add up.
A: Yes, they do. It is actually what we focus on at the club. We have a match review each week and we are presented with a videotape of our smothering tackling. It is called ‘Tackle and Tough’. It is the one-percenters we drive. That has been a massive difference for us the last 18 months, the little things we focused on. We see that tape Monday. He gives out Precision Footy which is one of his footies he patented. It is great.

Q: It would be a pretty good tape to watch on Monday
A: Yes, it will be awesome. Back in defence was huge. They held up well for us all game. Mids great as usual and the forwards, we come good in the second half. I felt like in the first half we were too far away from the ball and they were cutting it off across halfback. We got that going in the second half and it went well.

Q: Angus talked about you felt like you were playing your game over the last few weeks, not getting reward. Can you tell us about what changed in the way in which you guys identified, “This is the style we want to play.“
A: I don’t think anything has changed in the style as much. Obviously we are going with a bit smaller forward line, hence myself being in. We have big Ben Brown down there and Max Gawn at times but it is our ability to just stick to task for the full 120 minutes. Like last week, we go down by a goal. Collingwood were just better for longer, they were cleaner, they
executed under pressure. That was a huge pressure cooker of a game last week and we just didn’t get it done. That’s what we focused on this week. It looked like with five minutes to go it was maybe heading that way again but like I said before, we execute our win-the-game play and we have a win.