McGrath not only kept the dangerous LeCras, who had kicked 20 goals the last three weeks, to just two goals and five kicks but continually ran off him to collect 24 possessions himself, including eight contested, and rebound the Lions out of the defensive 50 on eight occasions.
"I enjoy playing on LeCras," McGrath said. "I set myself for a big game and was happy to keep him to two goals.
"It's been a focus the last two weeks to get back to how I was last year which was to run off and get the ball in my hands. It happened a few times, but he's too dangerous to run off too much because if the ball turns over he'll sneak out the back and you can't give him much space.
"I pride myself on playing on blokes like LeCras, Eddie Betts, Hayden Ballantyne and Stevie Milne. Milne and Betts have got hold of me this year and got under my skin, but LeCras was the in-form forward in the competition. The team needed me to stand up and hopefully I repaid them."
McGrath was far from convinced that Brown's last kick of the game was going through, but was obviously happy when it did.
"I don’t know, when he dropped that mark in the goal square I thought it was safe too but it was a captain's goal. He knew he had to put it through and he did," McGrath said.
"The ball was pretty much in our defence the whole last quarter and we finally got it forward and Browny took one of those marks. From where I was standing it looked like it was going to miss off the boot so I was glad it went through."
While McGrath and his teammates were relieved with the victory, he now desperately hopes they finish the year off strongly against Adelaide (Gabba), Essendon (Etihad Stadium) and the Sydney Swans (Gabba).
"It's been a long time so just to hear that siren and know we were on the winning end was a good feeling, but we know we've still got three weeks to go. We are going to enjoy it, but not enjoy it too much," McGrath said.
"We've got to finish it off. There's only three games to go and we're playing for pride at the moment. If we get the last three wins up we can take a bit of confidence and pride out of it to take into the pre-season and to come out running next year."
