AFL: The grand final myth that puts the GWS Giants in limbo

The Giants have been distinctly ordinary in the 20-point loss North Melbourne on Sunday. They will spend the season in limbo.

Kangaroo Curtis Taylor takes a mark in front of GWS’s Lachie Whitfield at Homebush on Sunday. Picture: Toby Zerna

Let’s bust a myth. The one about needing to lose a grand final to win one. It’s as false as the misconception about blondes and brunettes and redheads and who among them is having the most fun.

Across the AFL and NRL since 2010, only one beaten grand finalist in each code has reached the following year’s decider, let alone won it. So what becomes of the broken-hearted in footy? They go missing for a while.

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The true extent of GWS’s hurt cannot be revealed until October. Only by aiming up in another grand final can they erase the total and utter humiliation from last year’s big dance. Only by taking a deep gulp and returning to their haunted house at the MCG, and winning the flag, can they turn that deep psychological sting into a long-ago pin prick.

Only then will they be able to claim that everything happens for a reason, and so forth … but we’re wrong to assume they’re getting any closer.

Revenge cures everything in Hollywood movies and sport. It has to be a like-for-like transaction. The Giants need a grand final win like Al Pacino needed to wipe out the killers of his brother in The Godfather. The NRL’s Canberra Raiders need a premiership triumph to remedy last year’s ­defeat, but the reasons, of course, are wildly different. The Raiders have felt robbed. The Giants have been overawed. Overwhelmed. Over-rated? It will be nagging at them all year. It is already.

They need a flag like Dave Warner needs another Ashes ­series to make up for his last Ashes series. But the Giants have a long, long, long, long, long wait before learning if they’re good enough and patient enough to do what they need to do.

All footballers should spare a thought for Olympians. By the time Cate Campbell climbs onto the blocks at the Tokyo Games, she will have waited no less than five years to atone for her flop in the 100m freestyle at Rio.

The Giants were decidedly ­ordinary in their 20-point loss to North Melbourne on Sunday. They will spend the season in limbo. No Man’s Land. Surrounded by question marks. Can they aim up on grand final day?

We, and they, won’t know until grand final day. But as recent history has shown, we’re wrong if we fall for the myth that losing a ­decider is a stepping stone to winning one. The broken-hearted normally go quiet and then disappear.

The other side of the coin is that when you come good when it matters, when you win the big one, you can dine out on it until the next round of trophies and medals and gongs and certificates of participation are handed out.

Richmond may be coming off a bludger of a draw against Collingwood, but it matters naught. They’re premiers until another premiership is decided, just as Ash Barty is the French Open cham­pion until there’s another French Open and Kyle Chalmers is the men’s Olympic 100m freestyle champion until there’s another 100m freestyle final. What has Chalmers done since? Who cares! He’s been dining out.

The Giants’ revenge mission is fascinating because it will take so bloody long. And because the scars are so bloody deep.

The 17.12 (114) to 3.7 (25) loss to the Tigers was a sporting nightmare. Their total was the lowest in a grand final for nearly 60 years. They came home to Sydney and said all the right things. Oh, we’ll learn from that. Oh, it’s another move closer. Oh, we’ll get over it soon enough.

But no sporting team or individual cops such a hiding, on such a large stage, in front of so many people, without wanting to crawl into a hole. They let themselves down when all eyes were on them, and regardless of regular-season performances this year, they’ll be unable to shake the feeling until they give a better account of themselves in another grand final. But maybe the let-down is too keenly felt to be overcome this year.

In the AFL since 2010, only Hawthorn have lost a grand final and then reached the next one. They lost to Sydney in 2012 before winning the next three flags.

In the NRL, the eight runners-up since 2010 have not been sighted the following year. The Storm were the exception. On Sunday’s effort, the Giants are still ruing the big one that got away.