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Well. To go out like that was, to put it nicely, distasteful. And in the aftermath of such a comprehensive defeat, it is natural to want an immediate and definitive reason as to why.

The temptation is to hold this one game, the last game of the year, up to the microscope and then present it as emblematic of larger issues: It appeared Geelong hadn't learnt anything from the round 16 loss to Sydney – or indeed from any of the 5 losses all year – as the same problems kept presenting themselves: A catastrophic slow start, the selected 22 being too tall/slow, blindly bombing the ball forward, and giving up easy, spirit-sapping goals via turnovers.

That the Cats won 17 games, and finished 2nd on the ladder, is quickly forgotten in the wake of such an ugly exit. Indeed, only questions remain: Was it a good season? Did Geelong over or underachieve? Was a prime opportunity lost in a pretty wide-open year? Is the playing list overrated or is there a player development issue? Are they selecting the right team, playing them in the right positions? Why the large gap between their best and worst? Are all the new players taking time to settle in with their teammates? Is there a problem with the game plan? With the coaching?

A lot of fingers will, and have already begun to, point at Chris Scott. But I strongly suspect that being an AFL head coach is immeasurably more complex and all-encompassing than knowing when to swing Harry Taylor forward and providing channel 7 with histrionic reaction shots. And I suspect the AFL media, and the fans, have a pretty limited knowledge of what exactly goes on, something we as Geelong fans should be uniquely positioned to know (please refer to, “Review 2006” and “Premiership 2007”).

I also don’t think coaches really have a heap of input into the outcome on match day, other than perhaps reinforcing the team rules/KPIs/whatever at half-time; I genuinely don’t think any of them have a Plan B, they just aim to execute their Plan A better than the opposition; I think Geelong’s plan A was designed to beat Hawthorn; And I think that by quirk of the finals system The Cats came up against the wrong team, much like Collingwood did in 2011. Let’s also give Sydney their due; they beat Geelong.

Is Geelong’s entire football philosophy wrong, then? Scott’s finals record is bordering on poor, and for a club that has experienced recent premiership success, just making it to the big dance is no longer good enough. However, it is worth noting that the season only ever ends well for one team; and the more finals you play the more finals you are likely to lose (let’s call it the Ivan Lendl corollary). The Cats finished 10th last year. This year they won 17 games – including comprehensively beating the Western Bulldogs twice – and made a preliminary final. This is appears to be progress.

There improvements to be made, but the Cats don’t seem miles off the pace; it will be interesting to see the recruiting strategy this off-season. As I noted last week, I always thought that with this much player turnover, 2017 would be a truer representation of this Geelong incarnation, a truer test of the competence of this coaching group.

(Interestingly, the two grand finalists offer glimpses into differing paths to coaching success. The dogs pulled the plug early on the promising Brendan McCarthy era, while John Longmire was anointed to his position 12 months before he actually took it, largely inheriting an incumbent system. There are, it would seem, many ways to skin a cat.)

Whatever happens looking forward, looking back reminds us of two things; that bad preliminary finals are more easily forgotten than bad grand finals, and that it’s easier to sack one coach than 18 players.