Surging Lions victorious against Saints in shootout no one saw coming

Lions coach Chris Fagan spoke to the media post game.

Maybe not the way you envisioned going tonight.

I certainly didn’t. I thought it would be a hard-to-score game, to be honest. So from that perspective for us to be able to score as much as we did against a team that defends really well, I think that’s the highest score that’s been kicked against them this year. So, that’s a positive. But the negative to the game for me is, I thought, our team defence wasn’t as good as it has been in previous weeks tonight. And, you know, particularly in the first-quarter. I just thought we lost clearance really badly. Strangely enough, we are plus 27 points scoring from stoppage for the game. We lost the clearance battle. Couple of things for us to work on there.

Was there a game plan to try to open it up as much as possible?

We wanted to take the game on because St Kilda are so good at defending and getting numbers back and crowding up the forward line. So, it was a plan of ours that whenever we got the opportunity we would try and move the ball as quickly as we O could. I the ball as quickly as we O could. I -- as we could. We had 31 shots on goal from 53 entries. It’s pretty good return in that regard. We also, I think, turned it over a few times in bad spots at the top of the arc there and they were able to score off those.

If you’re going to play an attacking style of play you have to give something up as well.

We would like to play the attacking style of game and defend really well. I think if we kicked it more intelligently inside 50 we might have prevented a few more of their scores. I also felt like we were just a little bit slow when we lost the ball to snap into the defensive mode. That’s something we can look at this week.

Saints coach Ross Lyon is “optimistic” speedster Liam Henry hasn’t injured himself despite leaving the field late in the game after a knock to his ankle.

Henry tangled his legs with some Lions players in the final minutes of the match.

“He did a bit of a death roll after he was hit,” Lyon said with a smile.

“He took a knock to his ankle and he was talking and feeling good post game. Sometimes players cool down and there is a problem but we are optimistic that he will be fine.”

Dayne Zorko spoke to Channel Seven post game.

Some stressful minutes throughout that fourth-quarter. You must be really pleased with the boys to put the foot down and get it done.

We knew St Kilda would take the game on in the last quarter. It took a bit to get our system right. We were a bit away from being bold which is what we wanted to be. We can turn the ball over and scoring. We were able to rectify that. Kicked away late but still work to form on.

Against the St Kilda side there was so much conversation during the week about them playing highly contested, tight defensive brand.

I watched the game against the Suns. They defended their back sides off and were super impressive. A lot was spoken how they wanted to take the game on this week. We were prepared for T for the majority of the game we did it well. We let ourselves down late. Still work on that.

Lachie Neale managed to accumulate the ball, had 18 disposals. How pleasing is it to know that you have so many quality mids can pop-up and dominate.

I thought Hugh McCluggage was fantastic in the first half. Josh Dunkley he’s potatoes, gets it done every week. He’s incredible. Cam in the last quarter and third-quarter started getting exclusive which we love in his game. Lachie had a quiet night. We were prepared for that, set up for that. It was great to see the other guys set up around him.

What about you, speaking of stepping up 35 years young. You seem like you have a lot of confidence in your body and you’re playing some career-best foody.

Worked hard the last two preseasons to get my body right. Injury interrupted at times last year. Putting too much stress. I feel energetic, alive and hopefully still some good footy to

The Lions have hung on to claim the four points despite a fearless comeback in the final term from St Kilda.

It was the shootout we weren’t sure we would get but the Lions showed they have the firepower to still win matches.

Daniher’s five goals were outstanding while Charlie Cameron’s late goal could be the start of many - at least the Lions will hope so.

Henry has been forced off with a lower leg injury.

His season has already been interrupted by a hamstring injury which cost him several weeks on the sidelines.

He hobbled off and is now getting treatment.