As it happened: Power pip Saints, Blues thrash North, Freo upset Cats, Dees ease past Hawks, GWS destroy Crows

But Toby Greene tore the game to shreds in the first half, and from there, the four points were only ever heading back to one place - western Sydney.

In one half of tonight’s double-header, Port Adelaide grabbed a thrilling one-point win against a wildly inaccurate St Kilda in wet conditions in Cairns.

After trailing for most of the night, of course it was that man Robbie Gray who kicked the winning score for the Power as he has done on so many occasions before.

In tonight’s other game, Carlton blew North Melbourne away in the second half to win by 50 points while in the twilight match, Melbourne were tested, but ultimately came away with a 10-point win over Hawthorn to maintain their undefeated start to the year and extend their winning streak to 14 matches.

Thank you for tuning in today, we hope you enjoyed our coverage. Be sure to tune in again next weekend when we do it all again for Round 8.

Q: Aliir’s impact on the defensive end, how crucial was that in containing St Kilda?
A: He has been important since he has been at our footy club. Has had a significant injury this year, had surgery, taken a little while to get going. We’re a better team when Aliir is in our team. When we defend as a group, we defended as a group tonight, Aliir gets to mop up.
I’m sure he’ll be thanking his teammates.

Q: Was it a case of missed opportunities by the Saints or did your defence stand firm?
A: No, you could say that about both teams. Whoever lost was going to be somewhat unlucky. It was going to be hard to make the most of those chances and the conditions, you
don’t get many clean balls. It is hard to hang onto the ball. Big shots from Robbie make a difference.

Q: Ollie Wines is in good form.
A: He has been building. He has had interruptions. Significant issue with his heart. He has been fantastic for us the way he started to build. Last week in the second half, Ollie started to motor. Conditions tonight were made for Ollie.

Q: You touched on the conditions at Cazalys Stadium, your first time up here?
A: No, I’ve been up here a few times. Almost a local. At different times in my coaching career. I enjoy coming up here. We enjoy coming up here. Getting here was a challenge, we’re going home happy now because we’ve got four points.

Q: The guys celebrating, what does it mean to see the two wins in a row?
A: It always wins a lot. They gave so much. For everyone who knows about this game, they understand how much hard work goes into it. You’ve got to stay in the moment. We’ve had to stay in the moment for a good period of the year, hopefully we’re getting the reward.

Q: How do you keep the momentum next week?
A: Stick to task. See where we can improve and make sure we take care of this game, move to the next day, which is about getting preparation right, day-by-day, if we stick to the
process, we’ll be OK.

Q: (Mitch) Georgiades took a nasty hit to the calf, what’s his condition?
A: He was a bit sore coming in. We weren’t sure he was going to get through to be honest. He got through, his calf tightened up. Probably left it too late so I’m hoping he is OK for next week.

Q: Max King, do you think he got the ball enough inside 50? He looked reliable when he did get it.
A: We maybe didn’t kick the ball to him enough. There are aspects of Max’s game we are pushing him for. It will be a good learning game for Max. He is a quality player. It wasn’t the day where we could lace him out or use ball as well as we wanted to.

Q: Second loss in a row to another South Australian team at Cazaly Stadium. Any thoughts of how you want to see the team perform in Cairns?
A: We’ll leave that to others. We had a fantastic week in the build-up. We went and visited the community and we went to schools and the way we were embraced from the Cairns people was fantastic. We had a really good week from a club point of view. We just didn’t get what we wanted to do, get the four points. That was a shame. There were things to like about our game. We sit here and probably lick our wounds and be a miserable trip back in the plane but there were things to like about our game. We lost a game by one point. We had the opportunity to win. We just have to address those things. Whether we play at Cairns, Marvel, MCG, doesn’t matter. We just need to play the way we want to play. Today we did it for periods but we didn’t fulfil what we needed to do.

Q: Going forward, a big tough match against the Dees in the next round. How do you approach that coming off this loss?
A: I don’t think we change too much. Trying to be as consistent as we can in some of the focus areas we’re targeting. Rowan Marshall will come back next week, which will be great. A couple of boys playing tomorrow (in the VFL). We will see where that sits. Won’t have to do too much, maybe get better at a few things we weren’t quite sharp enough in tonight.
A bit of practice.

Q: When it is that hectic, you haven’t got too much time to think. You are relying on people to win one-on-one. Powell-Pepper’s contest, then Rozee feeds it back. It is the little wins like that.
A: 100 per cent. You never know when it is going to come to you. It is just being ready, trying to win is half the battle. The boys did that well towards the end. Even though 90 seconds felt like five minutes.

Q: Robbie Gray said he knew when he was kicking the goal, he had to score because the scores were level. But he had no feel for the time.
A: No, as I said, it can feel like five minutes. It is coming down to winning the contest, the ball could come to you at any stage.

Q: I was having a chat with Ken during the ad break. It is amazing the difference for him but he said, “I’m exhausted either way.” It takes it out of the head coach.
A: 100 per cent. Especially when the game is that close, he is pulling his hair out.

Q: Aliir, you played well tonight. You had syndesmosis, you came back quickly.
A: The medical staff did well. I came back in four weeks. The game against Carlton wasn’t my greatest game. This week was better. If I can keep building, it will be great.

Q: The last couple of minutes, it was so hectic. Massive contests won by both teams I guess really.
A: It was a pretty hectic last couple of moments. We were up, they were up. I thought our backs stood up under pressure down there all night. Yeah, kept our composure late and get up.

Q: Sixteenth season, that’s right?
A: Number 16.

Q: What’s harder now?
A: I think certainly games are a lot quicker. Teams defend a lot better. A lot more numbers behind the ball. As a forward, you don’t get any easy looks these days compared to when I started. As you probably hear about it, it is always about team defence and that makes it tough for forwards. That’s the main thing I noticed has changed.

Q: Robbie, you didn’t get a lot of one-on-ones. But you did generate a couple and that’s all you needed to get the chances?
A: In the conditions, if we get opportunities, try and put defenders under pressure, you know, I think we both kicked more points than goals but in the end it was enough.

Q: When you kicked that match-winning point, how aware are you of a) the scoreboard, b) all you need to do is score, and c) do you know how long there is left?
A: I definitely knew the score. No idea how long it was to go. Knew it wasn’t long. I think it was 29, 30 minutes on the clock by that stage. Just knew we had to hold up for another minute or so.

Q: Then the last mark, are you aware you’re inside 30 seconds?
A: No. No idea. I had no idea how long it was.

Q: You wanted to take time off, though?
A: I knew it was late. I knew there wasn’t all that long to go.

Q: One player I want to mention is Sam Powell-Pepper. Even when you had the stretch where you lost a few games, his effort was always there, his contests. He known to be aggressive in the contest. Great again tonight?
A: He is a strong boy, Pep, had a fantastic year. His contest work is strong. The last few weeks, he is a second ruckman. He throws his body around in there. He loves competing. Fantastic year.