Patrick Dangerfield says preliminary final loss to Sydney will sting Geelong players for a long time
IN his exclusive column for the Sunday Herald Sun, Patrick Dangerfield says the hurt of Geelong’s preliminary final loss will linger a while yet, as the Cats had more to give.
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SLEEP came some time around 5am, but it didn’t help.
A walk along the beach and a spot of fishing also didn’t do the job.
The reality is that nothing is going to take away the pain from our preliminary final loss.
It’s not what actually happened in the game that keeps the mind racing, it’s more the feeling that we had more to give.
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We played some wonderful footy this season, we had a few poor games just like every other team, but to end the way it did just doesn’t make sense.
This team had more to give and more to achieve, that’s the really tough part about Friday night’s loss.
We were convincingly beaten by a better side and that’s the hard part the players have to swallow. It tells us that we’ve got some work to do.
The first quarter onslaught is something I’ve only experienced a couple of times previously in my career.
My previous experience of preliminary final weekend came in 2012 when Adelaide lost by five points to Hawthorn. That was tough but the feeling this time around is different.
When a team is flying like that you just try to stop their momentum, stem the flow and the best way to do that is to obviously score yourself.
First you win the contested possession, find a composed possession and then create a scoring chain.
That’s the theory anyway.
Sydney just wouldn’t let us do it. They put us under enormous pressure when we were going forward while we didn’t put them under enough pressure kicking inside 50.
Statistics often don’t tell the story which is the case with the inside 50 count given Geelong had 32 more than the Swans.
It’s one thing to kick it inside 50, it’s another thing to look dangerous when you kick it inside 50. They looked dangerous and we didn’t.
Despite the scoreboard, we still had belief at quarter-time and even going into the final quarter. We knew we were still a chance.
All year we’d been a good finishing team and back in Round 21 we’d come from 35 points down at three-quarter time to defeat Richmond.
But finals is a different story and there’s also a reason Sydney finished on top of the ladder. They’re a very good side and they simply didn’t let up on their pressure.
You can go through all the cliches about how the loss will drive us throughout the pre-season but the facts are the start of 2017 is a long time away.
My previous experience of preliminary final weekend came in 2012 when Adelaide lost by five points to Hawthorn.
That was tough but the feeling this time around is different.
When we reflected on the Crows loss it was obvious that we’d given everything we possibly could in that game and were beaten by a better side.
It’s a lot tougher to walk off the ground and just know that we didn’t play our best. That obviously had a lot to do with Sydney not allowing us to but it’s still so hard to swallow when it’s the most important game of the season.
The performance didn’t do justice to this team which I have no doubt is a very good one.
You can go through all the cliches about how the loss will drive us throughout the pre-season but the facts are the start of 2017 is a long time away.
But what you can’t do is ride an emotional pre-season.
There has been some really big improvement in the team this season but we need to get better because the rest of the competition is going to get better.
We have to evolve and improve. The players know that and they also realise that you’re never guaranteed anything in this game — which is why it hurts so much to blow this preliminary final opportunity.
The attention of the football world now turns to Monday night’s Brownlow Medal. But to be honest it just doesn’t matter.
Every year I have been envious of those players who you see get up as soon as the count finishes and head straight out the door as they have bigger things happening ... team success.
I desperately wanted to be one of them this year.
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