I'm not convinced. The Hawthorn v Collingwood game started at 3.20pm. Our game started at 4.40pm. We would have overtaken Hawthorn had they lost to Collingwood and we had beaten Freo.
The Hawks only won by one point. We were 9 pts down at QTR time and 11 pts down at HT. This is around the time the Hawks match was finishing.
We were already behind and had been totally outplayed up until that point.
We run out after half time knowing we couldn't go up or down. It definitely was a factor in the subconscious mind in my view. The players new they had to be "up" the following week. Busting their guts in the second half against Freo meant nothing.