Macleod coach Garry Ramsay positive in his reflections of 2016 Northern Football League campaign

MACLEOD coach Garry Ramsay says the club will continue to look for internal improvement after its upset grand final loss at the hands of Heidelberg.

Macleod missed an opportunity record the club’s first back-to-back premierships. Picture: Stuart Milligan

MACLEOD coach Garry Ramsay says the club will continue to look for internal improvement in 2017 after its upset grand final loss at the hands of Heidelberg on Saturday.

Despite going into the season decider as favourites, Ramsay, who will continue his stay at the Roos into a fifth season next year, said the season had not gone to waste.

“Football has been a real positive part of all our lives and it will continue to be,” Ramsay said.

“There was a lot of people that had kids, started businesses, went well with their studies and work, so it has been a real positive environment and that is what we want to create at Macleod.

“We just don’t want to be a good football team, but we want to have good people and create a good environment where it is a high achieving place.”

However, the Roos will be without captain Kane Shaw next season when he spends a year working in Japan as a school teacher.

Macleod captain Kane Shaw wraps up Heidelberg’s Marcus Marigliani in a tackle. Picture: Stuart Milligan

“We’ll have to look to recruit a couple of fellas but other than that we’ll just keep looking for improvement from within our own list,” Ramsay said.

While content with what the club had achieved this year, Ramsay said the playing group were unsatisfied with the weekend’s result.

“What’s happened is we have played ourselves into a situation where it is only going to be a premiership that totally satisfies us,” he said.

“In the past we would have been happy to avoid relegation or happy just to play finals but now we are in a situation where it is only going to be a premiership that totally satisfies us.”

Macleod’s Lachlan Considine is consoled after the grand final loss. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Macleod kicked five of the first six goals in the game to lead by 21 points at quarter-time.

However, Heidelberg slotted 10 goals to four from that point on to record a 12.13 (85) to 9.15 (69) win.

“We performed OK and OK doesn’t win grand finals,” Ramsay said.

“We needed to lift a level and all credit to Heidelberg, they lifted a level from the second semi-final and we probably played at the same level.

“That was the difference.”