Geelong coach Chris Scott says he would be devastated if his players had not put in their best effort as their last shot at playing finals slipped away.
But their performance against Collingwood on Friday night was insipid enough for the coach to pose that question, with the only bright spot being the performance of Daniel Menzel.
The Magpies defeated the Cats by 48 points in front of 40,582 fans at the MCG, thus ruling Adelaide in and Geelong out of the final eight.
After four consecutive knee reconstructions and playing in his first AFL game since 2011, Menzel was the leading goal kicker for the night and took a spectacular overhead contested mark late in the game.
Scott said he was very emotionally attached to Menzel and watching him hurt his knee for the first time four years ago had been one of his toughest moments.
The coach allowed himself to wonder out loud what could have been, had the 23-year-old and fellow injury-prone youngster Nathan Vardy stayed injury-free.
"They were in our best 22 as 18 year-olds, 19 year-olds in 2011, Daniel Menzel was in the same draft at Nat Fyfe," he said.
Menzel said he was happy with his own performance, but disappointed that the team would not play finals.
"It is a weird feeling – the first 10 or 15 minutes (after the match) I was just gutted and Youngy, my physio, just came over and said: 'Mate, wherever things stand, just make sure you are proud of your performance and you enjoy it'," he said.
"When I take a little bit of time, absolutely, I will be really proud of my achievement tonight but it was not the result we wanted."
Scott said he loved the veterans of the club, which made a decision on who would play on next season particularly difficult.
Andrew Mackie, James Kelly and Mathew Stokes are three players who have questions marks hanging over them.
"My great hope is that those Geelong greats are people that we will all share a bond with for the rest of our lives ... it's going to be brutal," he said.
Scott would not say if the names of retiring players would be announced during the week to allow them to enjoy a farewell game.
Collingwood were humiliated by Richmond the weekend before, losing to their old rival by 91 points, so it was hardly surprising they came out firing on Friday night.
Coach Nathan Buckley said after their loss to the Tigers, he had spoken to the players about "pride and respect."
"Finals are off the table for us, but we want to continue to improve and be a better football team," he said.
Their dominance was so complete that for those who did not know better, Collingwood would have looked like the team with more at stake.
Geelong were off the pace from the start, allowing the Magpies to score 7.1 to 1.1 by quarter-time.
Dane Swan tweaked his knee and was unlikely to play again this season, Buckley said.
Travis Cloke was a last minute withdrawal with tightness behind the knee, but Buckley said that was a precaution.
"Six weeks ago against West Coast he was sore through the warm-up, we rolled the dice and he hurt his calf, so we weren't going to make the same mistake," he said.
An incident involving Geelong's Steve Johnson, who clashed with Nathan Brown, is likely to be scrutinised by the match review panel. If suspended, Johnson, who is off contract this year, may have played his last match for the Cats.
Collingwood will take some extra confidence into their final game of the year against struggling Essendon.
Scott said it was hard to explain why Geelong had performed so poorly and coaching staff would analyse it.
He said assuming one side had just tried harder than the other was an easy answer and there was usually more to a loss than that.
But it was one factor he would have to consider.
"I'd be devastated if I thought our boys weren't up for the challenge given what was at stake," he said.
