But in the aftermath of Echuca's grand final loss on Sunday, co-coach Simon Maddox was quick to remind those around him that it was not the be all and end all of life.
“The sun is still going to come up tomorrow,” he said.
While Echuca had easily been the second-best side in the competition this year, they were unable in the end to overcome the might of Kyabram, who completed their third perfect season in five years.
While Echuca were shattered by the result, Maddox could not speak highly enough of his playing groups efforts both on game day and for all of 2019.
“Its an ordinary feeling now, but its been a fantastic year for our club,” he said.
“We had a crack, we really did. We probably didn't play our best football which is a bit frustrating, but that happens in football. There has to be a loser.
“Full credit to Kyabram today, and for all of this year, they got the job done again. We possibly just lacked a bit of polish in the way we went against them. But I honestly cannot fault our effort, we really did give it our all, and on a day like today that's all we can ask of our players.”
While Echuca struggled for a lot of the contest including extended patches in both the second and third quarter they were able to make something of a charge in the final quarter to pull the game closer.Maddox said the team would be able to take a lot of confidence out of their response later in the game.
“We are a really good side with our backs against the wall,” he said.
“We have a lot of spirit and fight, we continued to run and carry at those stages which impressed us. There is a lot of hope for this side for the future, we believe in how we do things and what we are capable of as a footy side.
“Its going to be a case of we just need to stick fast as a group, enjoy the next few days even though it was tough to go through today's loss.
“The sun will come back up, we will use this loss as motivation when it does. It doesn't take too long before the footy season has rolled back around and we get to go again.”
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