THE MOOD is pretty buoyant around the place following Saturday night's win. It's a great atmosphere at the moment, particularly after a fantastic win like that.

Coming off the break and going up there made it an important game for us. It was just about our best win for the year. You'd be hard pressed to beat it – it really was a good effort. We went in there with a lot of kids, but they were all just fantastic.

We were built up to have no chance because of how many we had out, and I think that's legitimate to a certain extent, but to say we had no chance was not right. There's no doubt it was going to be hard, given the Swans have a great forward line structure, and we had three of our premier defenders out.

The thing is, people underestimate the calibre of some of the kids we had in, and "Wakes" has played on Barry Hall before and performed really well. Tyson Goldsack, who ended up playing on Michael O'Loughlin, was going to be a big ask, but he was fantastic, and the rest of them held up really well.

The Swans might not have been in form lately, but certainly a win over them still means a lot. Much was made of the fact it was an important game for both clubs, so even though the Swans aren't travelling as well as they have been in the past, they're certainly a very disciplined and very defensive side.

It's very hard to beat them any time, especially up there on their home ground. We were very pleased with the result.

With Anthony Rocca out this week we'll take notice of Ben Reid, who is knocking on the door. He kicked four goals on the weekend and is playing really well. Chris Grant had him for a period of time and he did really well.

He's got big wraps on him, "Reidy", and he's been knocking on the door. He’s a possible chance to replace Rocca, and we'll talk about it later in the week.

The season is half over now, and on reflection, I think the best part of our first 12 weeks has been our ability to make a contest of every game. There's hardly been a game where we haven't (made a contest) – we were slow in a couple of starts and disappointing throughout patches of games, but for the most part, the competitiveness of the side across the board has been fantastic.

That's all you can ask, really. You can ask for a starting point, and that's what the boys have delivered.

It wasn't a stated objective at the start of the year, although I think every side wants to have that sort of pressure, intensity and work rate.

I don't know whether you sit down each year and talk about it, and if it's going to be the No.1 thing, but certainly the players have taken to it on their own accord. They've seen the results it delivers and are sticking to it.

It was a bit surprising our match against Hawthorn this week wasn't moved to the MCG. I'm not sure why it wasn't, although we really don't worry about it at the end of the day.

For us, it's a matter of just making sure the on-field homework is done and the players are ready, as we do each week, regardless of the venue.

It doesn't affect the football side of the club, so to speak - it's more the administration side. The MCG, though, is as good a ground as any, and you play finals football there, so the more times you can play at the MCG, the better off you are.

We can't control it so we don't worry about it, but a packed crowd at Telstra Dome certainly won't have the same atmosphere as a similar-sized crowd at the MCG, which is a shame.

The big losers are the fans, there's no doubt about that. They're the ones who miss out.

The Hawks have been great this year. Early on I think people didn't rate them and thought they might have been a one-hit wonder, but they have a unique style of playing the game and their players obviously have a lot of belief in that now.

They're a formidable opponent, there's no doubt about that.

Our run to the finals is pretty good, but we certainly haven't sat down and spoken about it as a group. We've just pretty much come up against each opposition and done our preparation and homework each week.

There's been no real talk about the rest of the season, other than the fact everyone does realise they are a chance to play finals football, and I think that's enough to drive you.

One thing is for sure – if you take your foot off the pedal at this stage of the season, you do so at your own peril. Everyone realises that, as the evenness of the competition this year means it's all still up for grabs.