I think there are several things to be taken out of that game on Saturday night.
Yes, the players tried extremely hard and we got the four points but winning that game was just a matter of luck. (losing would have been just a matter of luck as well)
It's clear to me that that style of footy will not win a premiership. From memory, we have been involved in six games that have been decided by less than one goal and we have won four of them. We could be sitting on ten wins right now had the luck gone our way. Equally, we could be sitting on four wins.
There is a huge difference between ten wins and four wins, yet the progress of the team would be exactly the same. Just because you get a win, that does not mean that you are improving or building to a premiership. We've had almost no real progression over the last four years and no I do not count smaller losing margins as proof of meaningful progression.
DBTS, personally I do not agree that playing the three ruckmen was a success, particularly after Lobb was forced to be taken from the forward line and put into the ruck. While he was forward, he provided the best contested mark that we had and he got three goals. Had he been left there the entire game, we might well have won by five or more goals. Unfortunately, he was also our best ruckman because neither of the other two had the pace to keep up with Aliir Aliir, who was extremely dynamic and exposed a lot of players for their lack of pace.
We did not make any changes that provided a meaningful counter to him throughout the entire game. From memory, our best scoring period was when he was off the ground being sick.
I might be flog (as well) for saying this but the team has not shown any significant progress and yet the rebuild is apparently completed. We haven't developed many of the new players and most of the best players right now, were developed at other clubs. There is not a lot of balance to be found, when we are just not looking like making the grade.