“It’s hard to realise what we just did. This is a unique thing,the history of the game says that. No one has won as many close games in the history of the game as what we have been able to do this year. It’s been quite remarkable.”
McRae admitted that all numbers again pointed to a Collingwood loss and while his team seized critical moments he knew his team could not keep being beaten in those critical areas.
“The reality of what is happening in the game is we are getting smashed in all the numbers,” he said.
“Look at the numbers again today,contested ball,inside 50 minus 20. You can’t sustain that. It is not sustainable,but we have found ways,it was the same against Melbourne,we have found ways to challenge the opposition when we need to.
“If we get to a final and the game is close this group is going to believe.”
A disappointed,yet upbeat Voss told his shattered players not to forget this feeling.
”Let’s not forget about this,” Voss said he had told the Blues,who missed finals by 0.6 per cent to the Western Bulldogs.
“Let’s use how we feel right now as a motivation.” Voss said the defeat to the Magpies,who had trailed by four goals at three-quarter-time,would serve as motivation during pre-season training.
“Tonight’s going to hurt,” he said. “They’re disappointed. We didn’t want the season to end.”
Voss still said Carlton’s season was a step forward. “We had a goal to create a transformation and we’ve come a long way in that.”
Voss said the Blues aspired to be great,not simply making finals. “We want to be a top-four footy club,we want to be sustainably great.”
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Voss attributed the defeat to inefficiency – the Blues booting 0.6 to Collingwood’s 5.1 in the last term. “When it came to key moments,we couldn’t get it done.”
He said the finals appearance “was on our boot. We had a chance to get it right and we didn’t. You get what you deserve in this game.”
Voss said key midfielder Sam Walsh wasn’t really that close to playing,having been sore in the last-second loss to Melbourne. “He got through last week’s game pretty sore and he just couldn’t get going yesterday,the call was made it wasn’t even worth trying.”
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