Collingwood ruckman Josh Fraser spoke to CTV after his sterling performance in Saturday’s thrilling nine-point win over St Kilda, his 150th AFL match.

The 25-year-old was simply superb in shouldering most of the ruck duties throughout what was an extremely tense, physical battle, and finished with 20 possessions, 21 hitouts and two crucial goals.

Coming into the game clinging to fourth spot on the ladder, the Magpies fell 20-points behind early in the last term and looked all but beaten.

But, in what Fraser described as “up there” with the club’s best wins of season 2007, Collingwood stormed home to clinch the victory in the dying minutes, with the deputy vice-captain crediting his side’s developing maturity.

“I think it’s another sign of our maturity as a group, and I think we learnt a lot from playing Port Adelaide earlier in the year in similar conditions,” Fraser said immediately after a stirring rendition of ‘Good Old Collingwood Forever’.

“(It was a) great, gutsy win.

“We probably let ourselves down a little bit in the third quarter when they edged in front, but to the boys’ credit we fought it out, and again, that’s just a sign of where we’re at as a group, we’re starting to really mature.”

With the undersized and inexperienced Shannon Cox, who battled manfully, his only ruck support, Fraser had a huge task in combating big Saints Michael Rix and Justin Koschitzke for most of the game.

But he did so magnificently in arguably a best-on-ground display in his milestone outing, and thrived on the extra responsibility, as he so often does.

“I enjoyed a bit of freedom out there. I’ll be looking forward to getting one of Bear (Chris Bryan) or Stretch (Guy Richards) back in the coming weeks.

“I thought Coxy stood up when he needed to, and just gave me that little bit of relief, and in the forward line, Trav (Cloke) and Reidy (Ben Reid) did a little bit as well, so I had plenty of help.

“But, yeah, just good to get out there and have a run around.”

After finishing fourth in the 2006 Copeland Trophy voting – his highest finish – Fraser has enjoyed another really strong season in 2007, playing every game after an interrupted pre-season, and is without doubt one of the most important cogs in the Magpie machine.

And, in an ominous sign for opposition ruckman, Fraser believes his best is yet to come.

“I think my best footy is ahead of me.

“I guess in a perfect world, I’d probably be on about 100 games by now, but due to circumstances I was thrown in pretty early, and I’m really grateful to the club for giving me that opportunity, but certainly I’ve got the best to come.”

As for the team, which now sits at nine wins after 14 rounds and is well positioned to contest finals for a second-straight year, Fraser knows the players have a massive opportunity in 2007.

"Our destiny’s in our own hands, it’s a bit of a cliché, but it really is.

“We’ve got to regroup now and look forward to a massive game next week against Geelong, and I guess if we want to look further ahead we’ve got a tough one against the Bombers so a big couple of weeks coming up.”