He shook Winderlich's hand and congratulated the Bomber on his side's three-point win over West Coast, and inside his palm passed on six dollars of coins to the retiring veteran.
He joked that the money was for Winderlich to reconsider his decision to leave the game at the end of this season. The 29-year-old laughed, but said he was enjoying however many games he has left.
"It's funny, you sort of feel like you have nothing to lose, so I'm just going for it," he said.
People in higher places at Essendon are trying to steer him into going on in 2015, and will do so again after Winderlich's starring role in the win over the Eagles, where he kicked three second-half goals.
Coach Mark Thompson said he had never seen a player in Winderlich's form choose to retire.
"He's helped us win a few games this year. I haven't seen it really before. I haven't seen someone in such good form be wanted by a club…it's clear that the club want him to play and he's leaving on his terms," Thompson said.
"It's great for him. It's the best way to do it, to leave on your terms. He's obviously ready to exit the game and move on.
"I try and change [his mind] every week. I'm trying to change it right now. It won't work though, he's pretty stubborn."
After enjoying a move to the backline in recent weeks, Thompson shifted Winderlich forward in the third quarter of Saturday's must-win game.
He believed in Winderlich's ability to set things up, to get the forward line working better, and to direct. Immediately he gave the Bombers a spark, even if his first attempt at goal was a miss from 10 metres out after playing on from a mark and being tackled.
"They are things you do. I just cramped as soon as I went to kick it. I felt like the old leg was going to fall in half," Winderlich said.
"The ability you've got to have is to put it behind you and move forward, there's no point dwelling on it.
"I just felt like I had a really good matchup – whether it was [Eric] Mackenzie, [Will] Schofield, or in the end they sent [Patrick] McGinnity to me – you just take what they give you and go for it."
Other things changed after half-time. The Bombers picked up their ball-use, moved it quicker from defence, and reaped the benefits, consolidating their spot in the top-eight with the win.
"We felt like we were almost doing a reverse press on ourselves. We had too many guys once we won the ball not spreading quick enough," Winderlich said.
"We weren't spreading forward, which sounds foreign to the way we played in the past. We weren't getting depth in the field, then when we tried to run, link and carry through, we were running into too many numbers and had no flow in our game.
"That's what we worked on at halftime, just being selfless. If you've got a man on you, just get out of the way to get some flow of the ball."
Twitter: @AFL_CalTwomey http://afl.to/callumtwomey
