But Thompson did question the desire of some of his players after the loss to the Hawks, who were in their first grand final for 17 years.
The Cats went into the game on the back of just one loss since they won last year's flag by a record 119 points, and Thompson said the basic structure was sound even if the execution was not.
"I just told the players 'don't give up on the gameplan, because it's won 42 out of 44 games or whatever it is'," Thompson said after the match.
"If we had our day again today we'd probably plan the same way, we'd just hope to implement it better.
"The game plan's held up, we've won a lot of games over a couple of years, and we were red-hot favourites to win.
"Maybe if the game was played next week, we'd probably do it better and beat the Hawks, but on this day, they've got the points and the premiership, and they thoroughly deserve it.
"But that doesn't mean that we're going to panic and be ruthless and sack people and just forget about what we've done.
"We're still a very very good club."
Thompson said his defenders were outstanding, as was midfield maestro Gary Ablett.
"I just didn't think the forward line functioned that well together today. I thought our defenders were fantastic, our midfielders were reasonable, but our forwards – to have 62 opportunities (entries into the forward 50) and score 10 or 11 goals ... it's not enough.
"[Ablett] couldn't have done any more, he was fantastic. (Matthew) Scarlett was fantastic, [Cameron Ling] was great on (Sam) Mitchell, (Andrew) Mackie gave us plenty of drive, the old boy Dasher (Darren Milburn) was great, (Corey) Enright's rebounds -- there were a lot of positives, but in the end there weren't enough to help us get over the line and win the game.
"But Gary Ablett's performance was sensational. He looked like he just wanted to win so much.
"I wish he had a few friends in that same frame of mind."
