Stand in captain Brent Stanton believes senior coach Mark Thompson has played a key role in changing the mind set of the players to be able to win in any situation.

Among the list of players missing from the weekend’s 64-point win over Collingwood were skipper Jobe Watson, Brendon Goddard, Michael Hibberd and Tom Bellchambers.

Stanton said the coach’s approach of every player being replaceable had been the catalyst behind the recent consistency from the group.

“Bomber has said, and it’s really been a big sticking point, no matter who’s out there on the field we have to play the same way quarter after quarter,” Stanton said.

“He has been fantastic and he has been the perfect replacement for Hirdy.”

“Bomber was there when Hirdy first got here and they provided us with a game plan that they thought was going to win us games of footy and he hasn’t changed too much in that”

“The experience that he has had previously with Geelong and also as a player and a captain has held him in good stead when he did take over.”

Stanton, who filled in for acting captain Brendon Goddard, believes that the Bombers have been in their best form of the season since a frustration loss to Geelong in Round 15.

“We were obviously very disappointed with the way we played against Geelong in the first half and also the last 10 minutes of that game,” Stanton said.

“It was an opportunity to knock off a very good side at that point in time and the leadership on the field wasn’t up to scratch.”

“I feel that we’ve probably played the most consistent footy in the last eight quarters since that game and it’s really been the focus during the week in team meetings and training and it’s just starting to really flow on.”

The 28-year-old believes the performance produced by the team against the Magpies typified their recent resurgence.

“I think you’ve seen that our best performances are pretty good, but there’s still a little bit of a gap between our best and our worst,” Stanton said.

“We’ve been really focusing on our consistency and the last two games that we’ve played has been our most consistent footy.”

“We feel that Sunday was the best game that we’ve played all year in terms of putting out a consistent four-quarter effort, and we really hadn’t done that until that game.”