Zeno The Great
Club Legend
Wow you have summed up my emotions from the weekend word for word. Absolutely proud of what we achieved in getting there given where we came from, but you have nailed it completely.We were primed and ready in 2015 and were playing 7th place in a home final - right here and now we are a better team than Adelaide, and we should have won on Saturday night. Indeed we would have done so had we shown composure late, in the ice-cool way that Taylor Walker did - sound familiar? I don't think any team in the history of the competition could have +20 in clearances, +10 inside 50's, ahead in CP's, +40 in UP's, +18 in tackles, get to 100 points first (teams that do this win 98% of matches) and still find a way to lose a final. Only the Dogs could do that - if there is a way to somehow manufacture a heartbreaking/gallant loss in a final, we'll find a way. We own the patent on this - it's what we do unfortunately
I know we're young and there is much to look forward to, but these finals losses when we are the better team on virtually every statistical measure except the final scoreboard sting like hell. Winning a tight final like Saturday night would have been immeasurably beneficial to this young group, and we should have. It's a brutal assessment on the young group but it's not the slightest bit unfair. And it will take a long 12 months, and much incredibly hard work, just to be able to get the chance to possibly be there again. What will we do next time a final is on a knife-edge? History is not kind to us on that score.




Maybe it was nerves but at least Bont should be better in that regard in future. Harder to excuse Grant and Crameri's innacuracy but hopefully we will be better at standing up to finals pressure next time.