CHAD Cornes was bursting with satisfaction after helping lead Greater Western Sydney to a huge upset victory over the side that cut him loose last season, Port Adelaide.
Or so you would expect.
In reality, Cornes actually had plenty of sympathy for his former teammates, who are sure to cop a torrent of abuse and criticism following the 34-point loss to GWS.
Following an outstanding Port Adelaide career that included a premiership and All Australian honours, Cornes was unceremoniously cut loose by the Power midway through the 2011 season.
Offered a lifeline by GWS, he has been one of the first-year club's best players all season and played a key role in Saturday's victory, just the second for the Giants.
But his subdued response came as a surprise.
"I'm not quite as happy as I thought I'd be actually," Cornes told AFL.com.au.
"I feel pretty sorry for the boys. I'm pretty good mates with most of them still and I know what they're going through.
"The same thing happened last year when I was playing for them and we lost to the Gold Coast.
"It's not good and I really feel for the boys, but it was a tremendous effort from our guys.
"For the young guys to play the way they did tonight was outstanding.
"I was more excited than I'd been for a game in a couple of years, but just after the game, seeing the looks on the Port boys' faces, I'm just really feeling for them."
Port coach Matthew Primus, who was a chief protagonist in Cornes leaving the club last year, wasn't surprised by his former teammates' form.
"He's a competitor, we knew how he was going to go about his footy, so it hasn't surprised me how he's gone or how [Brogan's] gone."
The game was also just reward for GWS coach Kevin Sheedy, who walked away a winner in his 1000th game as a player and coach at AFL level.
It had been suggested during the week that the Giants may be tanking over the closing weeks of the season to guarantee the top pick in this year's NAB AFL Draft.
That issue was emphatically laid to rest with Saturday's win and was laughed away by the veteran coach.
"I put Dustin Fletcher in the backline once as a year 12 student and got Tim Watson out of retirement at 38,000 years of age and they all that that was tanking," he said.
"[Gavin] Wanganeen went down the back pocket in his first year and won the Brownlow and I was accused of tanking then and we accidentally won a premiership.
"It's just great for the GWS fans [to experience another win], to me that's what it's about.
"And it's also great for the team and we'll gain an enormous amount of confidence out of it."
Renowned for his quirky ways and his quips, Sheedy had one more when asked if Saturday had been a fairytale.
"I live in fairytales," he said.
"And actually it's very lonely because no one bothers me when I'm dreaming."
James Dampney covers Sydney AFL news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily of the AFL or the clubs
