All good things must finally come to an end. For those that bleed red and white, the Swans season came to a grinding halt against the irrepressible Geelong Cats on Friday night.
After a long season, every game virtually an elimination final, the last match of them all was just one too many for the jaded Swans.
The odds were firmly stacked in the Swans favour to progress through to the preliminary final, with everyone bar the Cats looking forward to the eventual Adelaide vs Sydney playoff for the grand final.
And who could blame them really, the Swans were fantastic in their win against the Bombers, setting a VFL/AFL finals record on the way to an emphatic 65 point win, while the Cats were poor and easily outscored.
Longmire sounded the warning during the week - don't write them off.
The game
There isn't a great deal to say really. The Cats had the early rub of the green and Dangerfield was giving Rampe a bath in the first quarter.
He kicked Geelong's first two of the match, either side of a Sam Reid goal and the Cats looked like they shown up for the fight, while the Swans were caught napping.
Two goals each and the game looked like it was close to tipping in the Swans' favour, but a late one to the Cats before quarter time had the alarm bells ringing.
A blistering 2nd quarter with the Cats giving the Swans a taste of their own medicine was more than enough to end the match before the major break.
Trailing by six goals the Swans never looked out of it, but never looked in it either.
The third quarter was promising with forward pressure finally applied, but after four consecutive behinds, the Cats ran it up the other end of the field and slotted one the easiest finals goal you'll see.
Metaphorical needle that broke the camel's back. Heads dropped and you could see the Swans knew it.
The rest of the match was played pretty close to half pace, with players outdoing each other in the comical turn over category, with a few moments that players would rather forget.
It's not often that the Swans lose finals like this and you'll struggle to recall a more abject performance.
Geelong deserved the win since they were the better team, but could only muster 98 points against a defensively shocking Sydney outfit.
It's a devastating way to sign off Jarrad's 300th match, but the Swans have a habit of serving up performances like that milestone games.
Longmire was pretty blunt after the match and hinted at exhaustion being a factor, and that the Swans couldn't execute anything they wanted to.
It has merit, since the season is long and the Swans recovered from 0-6, playing every match like an elimination final.
"We had things in place, we didn't get them done as well as what we could have," Longmire said.
"We tried a number of things, we weren't efficient at getting those things we wanted to get done completed.
"It was just one of those nights."
So perhaps the pressure of the situation caught up, or the expectations were too high, or they were physically spent, either way, they've signed off on season 2017.
Medical room
Franklin and Papley were physically restricted throughout the night and received treatment.
Luke Parker was stunned by a Parfit shoulder but played out the match.
What's next?
The players will finish up their club commitments during the week and take time off after the grand final. The club will be looking at the trade period and will no doubt be flat out busy.
We'll still be here throughout bringing the latest and greatest content, with more columnists and podcasts coming your way, so stay tuned!
| Sydney Swans | ||||
| 2.3 | 3.4 | 4.9 | 5.9 | 39 |
| Geelong Cats | ||||
| 3.1 | 9.4 | 13.4 | 15.8 | 98 |
Goals: Jack, McVeigh, Mills, Papley, Reid
Best: Jones, Jack, Hannebery
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