'Our time will come again': tough night for Matthew Guy as questions remain over his career

It wasn't supposed to end this way. The almost premier, Matthew Guy, standing on stage alongside his wife Renae at 9pm on election night conceding defeat after a "stunning night" for his opponent.

This was an election result in fast forward, almost like Guy's political career. First elected at the age of just 32 and leader of the Liberal party at 40, he could now be out of the parliament at 44.

Matthew Guy concedes.Credit: Chris Hopkins

The question of whether he stays on as leader or as an MP was left unanswered on Saturday night. He slipped out a side door at the Veneto Club in Bulleen before the media got a chance to ask him.

Guy was clearly emotional as he stood in front of a cheering crowd, thanking his staff, parliamentary colleagues and family for their efforts in a long and bruising campaign.

Despite the rebuke from the electorate, he stood by the issues raised during the campaign, including community safety, lowering the cost of living and easing congestion.

There was no talk of what had caused this crushing defeat at the hands of Labor but he urged the party to stick together, as the post-mortem was taking place over beers and glasses of wine around him.

A party member since 1990 when he was 16, Guy has only witnessed three Liberal terms of office in that time, but he predicted the glory days would return again.

"While tonight is not our night, we acknowledge that and accept that, our time in the sun will come again," he said.

But you could tell after walking into the Veneto Club early in the night, that this was not a confident bunch.

There was very little blue in the room. No balloons, no streamers, hardly any T-shirts, barely even a blue tie.

By 7.22pm, when it flashed over the big screen that the election was Labor's, the only blues apparent were those suffered by the faithful who had turned up early to watch.

Liberal party supporters at the Veneto Credit: AAP

It was like a fancy dress party where no one follows the theme. The only answer at that point was to ditch the lemon, lime and bitters and choose something stronger.

The choice of the Veneto Club in Bulleen was interesting itself. Apparently a favourite of the Guy family, who would come down regularly for pasta night, it was far from the typical inner Melbourne flash hotel where you'd expect the Liberals to have an election knees-up.

The sprawling club, with its brutalist architecture and gondola, was opened in 1973 to cater for the local Italian community from Veneto, in the country's north.

The Venetians were among the first to popularise double-entry book keeping in the 15th century but it didn't take a degree in accountancy to figure out that the Liberals were in trouble once results started filtering in.

The sea of red had swept through before anyone had a chance to finish their first glass of pinot noir.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy gets a sausage on the final day of the Victorian election campaign, in Melbourne.Credit: AAP

Not long after polls closed at 6pm, Guy had posted a thank you message on Facebook. It was like he had conceded defeat already, as exit polls showed that he was in trouble.

Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger did the media rounds early at the Veneto Club, telling each one that the polls had been wrong before, just look at Donald Trump or Brexit.

But if the polls were wrong, it was because they unerestimated the size of the Labor's victory.

You could sense earlier in the day that perhaps Guy had come to terms with what was coming his way.

At Sherbourne Primary School in Briar Hill near Eltham in the city’s north-east, he had a smile on his face.

It wasn’t a forced smile either, one of thousands he’s put on over the past month for the cameras and the voters and even perhaps for himself, as the polls showed his campaign was making little dent in the Andrews machine.

There was a playful enthusiasm about Guy early on Saturday morning that was far from the tough-on-crime persona that has been the main character in the Liberals’ election narrative.

He seemed like someone who has just finished their year 12 exams and knows that the results aren’t looking good but that won’t stop them enjoying schoolies.

His eyes lit up as he walked around his old primary school, the one he first attended in 1979, just around the corner from the suburb of Montmorency where he grew up.

During the tour, he talked about the pool the Labor government built here after the 1982 election, describing it as "classic pork barreling". He would not have been much older than eight at the time, only a small Guy but already a Liberal leader in waiting.

Now, all grown up, those days could be over.