MICK MALTHOUSE heralded the performance of his"light-bodied" players during the Magpies' courageous eight-point winover the Saints at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.
The match was played in driving rain and chilly temperatures,and the Pies were forced to stage a late comeback after allowing the Saints tokick five unanswered goals in the third term.
Malthouse said the side's lighter players - Dale Thomas, SamIles and Tyson Goldsack - stood up, despite the additional hazards that comewith playing in such inclement conditions.
"I've predicted rain now six weeks in a row, which is abit of a standing joke among the players, and I've got it right at some stage,which is today," he said, after the match.
"You go in with that knowing that we've got lightbodies, they're going to get knocked around a fair bit, but these blokes nevercease to amaze me with their 'Never say die' attitude.
"It's just been terrific."
Malthouse said he believed the Pies could always claim thefour points, even when they fell 21 points behind early in the final term.
"Wet weather football gives you little surprises. Ifyou can just stick [at it] … I thought we made so many errors in that third quarter,along with other people – the St Kilda players made mistakes as well," hesaid.
"At three-quarter time, maybe it's false, but Icertainly believed that we could still win the game. We just got somethingright, and I'm not going to go through that, but I reckon we got this somethingright, with all the players in particular, a certain type of thing that weneeded to do.
"That spun out a goal here, a goal there, and all of asudden, we're back in the game. It was terrific."
He also commented on wet weather football in general, andsaid it was pleasing to see the additional features such conditions draw out ofa game.
"We've prayed for rain and we're going to get it andit's something you adjust to and it's one of those great things aboutfootball," he said.
"I just think good, dry weather football is terrific,but you've got to have that mix of wet weather football, because it just bringsin so many other elements.
"Bravery for one, and the courage aspect is justcritical in these sorts of conditions. Brave men deserve to be allowed to bebrave."
The free kick count weighed 28-22 in the Saints' favour atthe end of the game, but Malthouse refused to be drawn into discussions aboutthe nature of the decisions and instead opted to go the simple notion of "Winnersare grinners".
"I'll say this. Decisions are decisions, and I don'tagree with them all and probably half the crowd didn't agree with themall," he said.
"The 50m penalties were there, and I'm disappointed inour lack of discipline over those. That's 200m we've given up, because whetherwe assume right about a free kick or whatever, we've got to give it up."
He did speak briefly of the decision to cancel thespectacular goal Thomas kicked from the boundary line after the ball was deemedout of play.
"We've just got to get things right. That's the onlything. We've got to get it right," he said.
"I'm sure that was close enough to be viewed, andluckily, we got it back and it turned out Dale did kick the next goal."
The Magpies now face the ladder leaders in Geelong next Saturday at the MCG in whatlooms to be a blockbuster, and Malthouse is already understandably anticipatinga tough contest.
"After watching them last night, they're a very, verygood football side. Extremely good football side," he said.
"The tests just keep coming."
