A disappointed Luke Beveridge spoke to the media following the Dogs' loss to the Dockers. 

Here's what the senior coach had to say. 

On immediate reaction:

“We’ve missed an opportunity to play finals right now.

“When we had control of the game early, we probably didn’t capitalise on some scoring opportunities.

“We knew going in that they were bigger, probably a little bit stronger as far as the height-to-weight comparisons go.

“We went in knowing that their long-to-contest stuff off the boot was going to be something that we had to defend well.

“That was the game in the end. We didn’t diffuse their long kicks to contest out of our front end.

“They got us in a lot of space in their territory and scored a bit too easily. In the end, that’s probably the margin.

“There’s a lot of disappointment in all of that. Everyone’s flat.

“I thought Fremantle played extremely well. They’ve been a good side this year. Their contest and the way they’ve played, they challenged us.

“I don’t think we played that poorly. I thought we were well in it. We didn’t capitalise on some stuff, and they did.

“The North Pole is that, I think we played 37 or 38 players. There’s been a lot of improvement through our playing group.

“We haven’t been able to win these games against the better sides. That’s just a black-and-white thing.

“We came out of the previous year and there were half-a-dozen games where we just lacked any I.D. There’s not a game this year where we haven’t been really grateful for the players’ performance, their application, their willingness to persevere.

“This afternoon is another one of those.

“The boys still dug in. They still gave their all, and obviously we fell short.

“There’s a lot of encouragement coming out of the year. As I said, from a club, a team and from an individual perspective. That doesn’t override the disappointment of a missed opportunity.”

On the next few days: 

“We’ll carry on like that slim chance is there.

“We’ll turn up Tuesday and we’ll have a flush run, and we’ll process some things.

“We’ll be attentive to what happens Wednesday.

“Our objective is to get to the point where we’re right at the top of the ladder consistently and continue to create that in succession.

“We haven’t been able to do that to this point in time.

“There have been good outcomes playing in Grand Finals. But this has been a year of considerable growth.

“We just haven’t been able to win that one or two more to give us that look that you’re talking about.

“That’s just the way it is. We’ve got to accept that.”

On wins against the best teams and what needs to change: 

“Quite simply, it’s being able to sustain the contest.

“We haven’t got a great pressure rating. We’ve become a prolific scoring team.

“They scored quite heavily today, and that’s another thing. We haven’t been able to stifle the scoring ability of the opposition. Definitely, at times, the opposition key forwards have got a hold of us.

“It is and it isn’t an area that we need to continue to focus on and improve and work with our current players who play there. But perhaps look at whether there’s an opportunity in the market there.

“Quite simply, our contest sustainability – and that’s inside and outside of the stoppage – it’s been the one thing, I think, in some of the more physically robust teams where we’ve just fallen short for a period of the games, and it’s cost us.

“That’s probably the simple thing.”

On what the Dogs will look for in the post-season:

“I’d rather not talk about post-season. It’s disrespectful to our current group.

“If you fall short, as far as being able to resurrect the footy in your back third, you’ve got to look for ways to make sure that you improve there.

“Jed Busslinger is in the infancy of his career. James O’Donnell is pretty brand new. ‘Lobby’ obviously is a seasoned player.

“We just need to be better. That’s just part of it. That’s the main area that we’ve continued to try and work out how to prevent the footy from getting there but being better at diffusing those situations.

“We just haven’t been good enough.

“When we start to lose the contest and there are some blatant turnovers, it’s just too hard to stop it against the better teams. They use the footy too well.”

On Treloar, playing VFL Finals and future: 

“He will.

“The important thing for Adam is that he got through the game last week. He’s actually been sick for the last few days, so even if we had picked him – he wouldn’t have been able to play.

“Hopefully, he comes up and just finishes off the year and be able to play out the four quarters.

“Adam at his best is one of the first handful picked.

“The assessment at the end of the year is whether he is physically capable to go on, and whether the same challenges will remain next year.

“We’ll work through that with him. If you were guaranteed that he could play 15 games of AFL footy, you’d definitely go on. I’m not sure we’ll get that guarantee. It’s going to be something that we’ll process together.”

On Jordan Croft:

“He’s a really promising young player.

“At the start of pre-season, we lined him up to play a few positions just in case we lost a player or two.

“He’s pretty fresh and brand new, but he’s a unique player.

“He’s shown some really promising signs. Hopefully, Crofty can continue to grow and be a player who sets the scene around that sustainable success.

“I think when you’re him and Sam (Darcy), they had seven inside 50s and that’s difficult.

“They managed to hang in there and come again. He’ll be better for his AFL experience. He’ll be right to play for Footscray next week.”

On the second quarter:

“It’s what I said at the start.

“It was those long kicks to contest that really hurt us.

“They got centre clearance too. They got territory and they got some out-in plays when they got a stoppage or two, and they kicked goals.

“It was a territory game for them. That’s why we didn’t get it inside our 50m.

“So centre bounce went south, and when we did get it forward, we didn’t defend those balls to contest well at all. That was the game in the end.

“You look back at it, you’re going to be frustrated and you’re going to be disappointed. The thing is, it was history repeating itself in a different way. The same thing happened in Western Australia when we played them the first time.

“Seven goals in the second quarter. It’s been a little while since that’s happened, but as far as that run, we tried to stop it. Particularly at the end of the quarter, we gave back the last couple in a different kind of mode. It wasn’t enough.”