Close enough wasn't nearly good enough for Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge, who gave his players an almighty spray in the immediate aftermath of their heartbreaking two-point loss to North Melbourne.
With the final siren of Saturday night's 12.5 (77) to 11.9 (75) loss still ringing in their ears, Beveridge took his players behind closed doors and conducted a scathing review of the disastrous final minutes.
Billy Gowers appeared to have sealed a memorable win for the undermanned Dogs with his goal about minutes from the end at Etihad Stadium putting his side back in front.
But a Mitch Wallis blunder followed by a team-wide loss of concentration opened the door for Kangaroos skipper Jack Ziebell to kick the winning goal with 20 seconds left on the clock.
"It's rare that I confront them and raise my voice ... I'm a rational person," Beveridge said.
"There was a lot about tonight's game we liked especially the way we moved the footy and gave ourselves opportunities.
"But ultimately, as a group, we got ourselves to a point where we could win the game and I don't want our boys to walk away thinking 'that was good and we almost got there'.
"All that was good and we should have got there.
"You can't tiptoe and tread lightly around that when it is such a significant game."
With skipper Easton Wood and ball magnet Jack Macrae both hamstrung in last week's loss to Port Adelaide, the Dogs defied the odds to lead at every change.
Even when the Roos hit the front in the last quarter, Beveridge's men found a way to get their noses back in front.
But the Wallis clanger kick inside 50 that went out on the full with less than a minute left set off a calamitous chain of events.
"We fell apart structurally in the last two minutes after we kicked our last goal," Beveridge lamented.
"It's frustrating (actually) it's more than frustrating ... it's extremely disappointing.
"We got ourselves into a position to win it, that's a positive sign, but we couldn't sustain what we'd done in the first half.
"We can say that over time, as we roll we'll be able to sustain it for longer, but we can't ourselves an out because we believe we should have won the game but woulda, coulda, shoulda ... it's a pretty disappointing outcome."
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