TEARS of anguish flowed from even the most hardened Tasmanian Devils as they fell two points short of victory in a VFL thriller against Geelong at North Hobart yesterday.
Even though the Cats stole the show 22.9 (141) to 21.13 (139), the bumper crowd of 4528 left knowing they'd seen one hell of a game.
"Everyone who came to the game saw a special effort - they [the Devils] had a go,'' said coach Mathew Armstrong.
The youngest Devils side in three seasons faced an uphill battle against a strong Geelong, the home-town heroes snatched the lead in the last quarter with a sizzling four-goal burst.
Geelong pressed hard, but the Devils held the lead until deep into time-on. That's when Geelong's two destroyers surfaced to kill off a fairytale finish.
Half-forward Steve Johnson kicked his seventh goal at the 25-minute mark to put the Cats within four points.
And towering forward Matthew McCarthy followed up with his sixth goal at the 28-minute mark to give the Cats the lead, and ultimately the win.
Armstrong enforced a coach's "shut-out'' in the rooms after the match.
"I shut the door so it was just me and the players,'' he said. "They were devastated, very upset, teary, some of the players.
"They'd worked so hard and didn't get what they wanted to get out of it in the end.''
When asked what he thought made the difference, Armstrong was dirty on one player - but stopped short of his public humiliation.
"What cost us the match? Three incidents in the last 10 minutes by the same player,'' Armstrong said.
Someone who can hold his head high is Ken Hall, who's 26 possessions were a team best effort.
He also led the tackle count as the Devils racked up a very impressive 99 tackles, four times better than last week's loss to Sandringham.
In the first half the Devils fought back from a 34-point deficit, the side's high number of hard-ball gets playing a big part in the revival.
Luke Shackleton gave the Devils outstanding service in the packs, his crash-bang style and 11 tackles making him one of the side's most valuable players.
Skipper Ben Beams led by example, while at ground level Ben Setchell, Ian Callinan and Jason Ling were electric.
All eyes were on Gary Ablett's youngest son, Nathan, who lined up at full-forward.
But you had to be concentrating hard to see his two marks and two kicks for one goal.
He was beaten by Mathew Jovanovic who, along with Brett Geappen, were the only clear winners in the Devils' back half.
Tasmania's goals came from its crumbers, Callinan leading with four and Shackleton and Ling three each.
Former Devil Cameron Thurley advanced his chances of an AFL debut for Geelong with a commanding performance in the midfield, where he gathered a game-high 27 possessions and kicked a goal.
The Devils travel to Melbourne next Saturday to take on Port Melbourne at TEAC Oval.
Last Modified on 11/04/2005 16:08