The silence in the Werribee Districts change rooms after the WRFL division 1 grand final was deafening.
The Tigers had endured three hours of torture and the only sound to bring a sigh of relief came at the final siren.
The optimism was sapped out of the Tigers long before the button was pushed.
There is no way back when your team is goal-less and staring at an 82-point half time deficit.
This is not how Werribee Districts deserved to end their season.
They have been universally admired for the point of difference they have brought to the competition in the past two seasons.
What they have lacked in size, they have made up for in heart.
While they have structured up a little unusually due to the personnel on their list, they have always been well managed by coach Wade Chapman to play a brand of football that suited their strengths.
The Tigers have been one of the toughest nuts to crack this season because of their trademark hard tackling and relentless defensive pressure.
They have shared the load and not relied on stars to get them to a grand final.
The trouble was, come 2.20pm on Saturday, the real Werribee Districts did not turn up.
All that was good about the Tigers over the previous 21 games was lacking on the big day.
They played a bruise-free brand of football when only their physical best was demanded to beat Deer Park.
With their height issues in the forward line, they needed better use of the ball, but their skills by foot were terrible.
They were overawed by the occasion, which is a little surprising considering a number of players in their team had experienced grand finals before.
Sure, the result had to a lot to do with the rich stocks on Deer Park’s side, but remember the Tigers have beaten them and come within a kick in two of their previous three outings this season, so it is not all about talent.
“Usually we’re a good tackling team, but I don’t know if we laid any tackles in that first five to 10 minutes of the game,” Tigers co-captain Matt Dean said. “We generally aim for 20 a quarter and we were nowhere near it.
“The skill level was just way different, they completely out-classed us on the day, all over the field.
“The bigger bodies and taller Deer Park boys seemed to hold us out really well.”
The Tigers had key outs in mobile tall Jameel Sargent, key defender Joey Halloran and target man Andrew Panayi and simply do not have the reinforcements to cover such important players.
“Having Panayi out was not ideal,” Dean said.
“You want to have your best goalkicker on the field, but we had to find other avenues to goal.”
Take away the grand final aberration and you have an otherwise nice body of work by the Tigers this season.
Chapman stood down on Saturday night, citing family reasons and hour long drive from Drysdale four times a week as the reason.
He would have departed his position whatever the result.
Chapman can be proud of his players efforts over two seasons, but he was let down on Saturday.
So, too, were the committee and the supporters, who went in knowing they were the underdogs, but hoping for a grand final surprise.
“Unfortunately we have let them down a fair bit,” Dean said.
“To be able to make it to the grand final is some kind of achievement, but to produce that performance on that day is extremely disappointing.
“It might take a little while to sink in what really happened to us out there.”
