A HEAVYWEIGHT battle.

Both Carlton and Melbourne pulled no punches in a pulsating Round 22 clash at the MCG . . . and not for the first time. However, on this occasion, it was the Blues who emerged victorious.

In a tough, contested, "finals-like" game, the Blues held on by the skin of their teeth against a surging Demons outfit.

Speaking after the game, this is what AFL Senior Coach Michael Voss had to say.

On the result: 

“It was pretty big. 

“I don’t know how to express it really: we were holding on for a period of time late in the game. Moments win you those games, and we had a couple go our way. It was a great result.”

On the calibre of recent wins: 

“It’s got a bit better as we’ve gone on. I thought Collingwood was alright, St Kilda was pretty good, but that one was the best of them all. 

“We’re winning in different ways, we’ve shown a great adaptability across the year. We’ve had lots of questions asked of us, but we’re showing that resilience and grit. We were able to put that into the way we were playing: you can see the boys have got some real hunger and desire right now and are really clear on what’s needed.

“I felt it was a fantastic performance in what was a finals-like game, where we had front-half dominance and clearances, they had some front-half dominance and clearances. It was back and forth for four quarters, and both teams didn’t relent.”

On the final play from Caleb Marchbank:

“It was a lucky rotation. We put our strategy in place for him to get that finger-tipper right at the end! 

“I was sitting there sitting ‘Please don’t overrule this, you can’t lose this way’. Thankfully, the call went our way and we were able to hold on. I’ve spoken to him and he says that he did: at this point in time, it doesn’t matter to me. We’ll take the four points and walk away.”

On comparisons to the same game last year:

“We’ve had moments throughout the last 18 months where we’ve learnt a lot about ourselves, and that’s one moment that we’ve gone to work on. But what we’ve also done is we haven’t looked back. We’ve got on with things. 

“That stuff has sat in the background and we’ve gone on with trying to find out what our best version is. That’s been a challenge. 

“It hasn’t been about the opposition that we’ve played, it’s just been about how we get better ourselves. The guys have gone after that. It hasn’t been about the opposition, it’s about how we can get ourselves better and find our best version.”

On not capitalising on first-quarter territorial dominance:

“We had to stick to process. We had to tidy up a couple of things, because they went end to end too easily at times. As a coach, you’ve got to say that the outcome isn’t around the scoreboard, but the process we’re doing is going well. 

“They were putting numbers back, and we don’t get to choose that: we had to work our way through it, and thankfully the boys were able to work on that. We got a couple of early rewards in the third quarter by persisting by what our method needed to look like, and by the fourth quarter, we got a little bit of a gap that they almost dragged back. 

“It was two heavyweights going at it for 12 rounds and we won on points.”

On embracing the defensive nature of the game:

“At half time, I said ‘if we need to win this 44-41, that’s the way we’re going to win it’. If they defend, we defend harder. If that’s what it takes, if that’s what’s needed, then that’s what we need to be able to live in. 

“We’ve had to be able to learn how to play that way and value it and put pride in that’s the outcome we’re after. We’ve stayed present to that, and we’re getting some results.”

On staying present rather than looking back:

“I haven’t taken moments to look back. There’s a time when we were doing that, and look at that as a way to say ‘what’s next for us?’ and ‘how do we continue to improve?’. Now, we’re about staying present, staying to each other and what’s coming next. 

“The job is not done, our job is not done. We still feel like we’ve got more to give and there’s still more season to play out, there are still no guarantees. We’ve got to keep earning the right. 

“It’s a tough message to give the team after we’ve just won like that: we’ll acknowledge this win - a very good win - but we’ll review it the same way, get into Tuesday and move on quickly to the next opponent. I think we’ve done that pretty well.”

On refining the team’s own game:

“The opponent hasn’t been the focus. Every opponent has their own constraints, their own threats that they bring to the game that we need to be able to manage. It’s been about us trying to get our game going and reinforce the roles we need, having a next-man-up mentality. 

“We’ve had some guys play some really significant roles for us, and they’ve been game changers for us: we’ll continue to reinforce those and live in that space. 

“It’s not so much about what we’ve got next, but how we get better and how we can keep bringing the best version of us. If we keep doing that, we feel we can match it with some pretty good sides.”