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

Q: We’ll get to the game in a moment but can you tell us what happened at three-quarter time there? We saw some scenes we don’t usually see, obviously something happened between Dayne Zorko and Harrison Petty?
A: ‘Petts thought he had heard something inappropriate about a family member. He was a bit upset about it. Brisbane have spoken to us, and obviously the AFL will look at it, but that’s pretty much all the details that we’ll give at the moment. It’s going to hand over to the AFL. But ‘Petts’ was a bit emotional. He went away, reset himself and came back into the game. So that’s the most details we’ll go into today. But as I said, Brisbane have been quite apologetic towards us, and that’s the type of club they are. They’re a very respected, humble club.

Q: How is Harrison now?
A: He’s fine. Yeah. So he’s all good. As I said, he reset himself, took some time out, regathered himself, then came back into the game. His last quarter was pretty strong.

Q: Luke Jackson, got subbed out of the game. Is it knee?
A: No, he just had a corky to his calf. Top of his calf. He had it for the majority of game and it started to tighten up late in the game. We’ll see how that settles town in the next few days.

Q: What did you make of the performance? It was emphatic from the get-go?
A: It was, and I thought, I’m so proud of our playing group and our club in general. To be able to focus on what we could control tonight, and come out and start the way we started with the intensity, in another big game, it was just brilliant the way the players went about it. I’m very proud of our club. To be sitting in this position, to give ourselves the chance, as most coaches will say, that season is now done and we start another one. We’ve given ourselves a chance to prepare really well and give ourselves the best chance to perform.

Q: Do you feel like you’ve got Brisbane’s number? You’ve handled them pretty easily now three or four times in a row.
A: Not at all. They’re a high-quality team. They’re a contest team, in the second half they showed us again that they have the ability to do that and challenge. But we’ve had some good results in recent times but they’re very contested games, very physical games, and we’ve got the utmost respect for them as a club. They haven’t been in this position over three or four years for no reason. They’re a high-quality footy team.

Q: Do you guys get a sniff of finals and that’s why you’ve risen tonight? That must be nearly as close to as good a footy as you played this year?
A: We’ve been building the last six or seven weeks. We’ve been really happy with our form and the way we’re setting our game to play finals footy. Tonight was the first example of being able to do that. That was a finals-like atmosphere. To come out and deliver, our playing group have learned over the last couple of years what it takes to perform in big games. Tonight as a playing group they understood what was needed and they executed.

Q: Given the stakes that were on the game going into it, I mean, how much does it mean coming out of it? Do you care whether it’s (position number) two or three (on the ladder)? You’re in two now, but it depends on what happens in other results?
A: Just control what we can control. We can’t do anything about that now. It will either be two or three. Wherever that sits, that’s OK with us. We’ll just take on the challenge and look forward to it. That season is now done. A new season begins. We have some time to rest up the next three days, mentally refresh and come back ready to go.