As it happened AFL 2023 round 22: Blues hold on for thrilling win over Demons, Dockers thrash Eagles in derby

The Blues claimed a thrilling win over Demons, one that ended in a controversial score review which will undoubtedly be talked about all week.

And Fremantle have thrashed West Coast in a result that may have ramifications for the future of Adam Simpson.

Thanks for following along all of today’s action. We’ll see you back here soon.

What about Caleb Marchbank’s fingertip?

There was a lucky rotation - we put a strategy late in the game for Marchbank to get a finger Tipper at the end. I thought, ‘please don’t overrule this’. You can’t lose it this way. But the call went our way and we were able to hold on.

Do you think he touched it?

I’ve spoken to him and he says he did. At this point in time, it doesn’t matter to me. We will call it as touched and take the four points and walk away.

You played this team 12 months ago. You have exercised the Demons and come up against a premiership contender weeks out from the finals.

Over the last few months we have learned a lot about ourselves and that’s one thing we have gone to work a lot on. We also haven’t looked back and got on with things. That sat in the background. We just tried to find what our best version it is. That’s been a challenge. It is not about the opposition we have played, it is about how we get better ourselves.

You had landslide territory early but weren’t able to put it on the scoreboard.

It is sticking to process. We had to tidy up a couple of things. They went end to end too easily at times. They only had four inside 50s first quarter, but they scored. As a coach, you have to say the outcome isn’t necessarily on the scoreboard, but it is playing well. We have to work our way through it and thankfully the boys are able to continue to work on it. We got some rewards in the third quarter by persisting with what our method needed to look like. It was just two heavy weights going at it toe to toe for 12 rounds, and we won on points. It was a really good contest.

You said mid-season defence was your focus and you wanted to get that right. How pleased are you being able to limit the Demons to 56 points, and pressure was tough all night.

I said, ‘if we need to win it 44-41, that’s how we win it’. If they choose to defend, we defend harder. The contest battle was even. In fact, it was almost exactly even. If that’s what it takes, then that’s what’s needed and that’s the contest we needed and that’s the contest we need to be able to live in. We have had to learn how to play that way and value it and put pride in that’s the outcome we are after, and thankfully we have stayed present to that, and we are getting results.

You have touched on this a few times in recent weeks, but you have won eight in a row. Booked yourselves a finals spot. Now you have the finals spot, and you look back to where you were, sitting in the bottom four and not knowing where your next one was coming from, as you said, can you believe what your team has achieved in a couple of months?

I’m sure I will in time, but I haven’t taken a lot of moments to look back, to be honest. Now it is about staying present, staying true to each other and our job is not done. We feel like we have more to give there is more season to play out. There is no guarantee still, and we have to keep earning the right. It’s a pretty tough message to give to a team straight after we have just won like that, but we will acknowledge this win. It is a very good win. We will review it in some way, but we need to move on and focus on next week.