ADAM Kingsley found last year's Grand Final difficult to watch.
He might not even bother this time around.
In coughing up sizeable leads worth 28 and 44 points to Sydney and Brisbane across its two finals, Greater Western Sydney has blown a golden opportunity to return to the game's ultimate stage.
Next season will mark six years since the Giants made their first ever Grand Final. The fact it remains their only Grand Final appearance, despite three more September campaigns, one preliminary final and two big leads, will burn.
Last season hurt for the fact that an underdog team, in Kingsley's first season in charge, fell just short of a fairytale flag. The one-point loss to eventual premier, Collingwood, showed how close the Giants were. That's why it stung Kingsley to watch the Pies parade the trophy around the 'G the very next week.
But this year will hurt even more. The Giants played six quarters of blistering, Kingsley-stamped football this September. They were crucial in helping the side compile the commanding leads that had put them in such strong positions to win through.
But they also lost both of their last quarters of the qualifying and semi-finals by a cumulative margin of 57 points, enabling both the Swans and the Lions to run over the top of them in the dying stages of both matches.
The defeat to Brisbane on Saturday night saw the club drop a 44-point lead, the second largest comeback in V/AFL history and only marginally behind the record 47-point turnaround Geelong recorded against Carlton way back in 1931.
Kingsley will hope it's not the final chance for that 2019 core, but more list management questions hang over the side given three crucial players that featured last weekend remain in doubt to return next year.
Star free agent pair Harry Perryman and Isaac Cumming are yet to inform the club of their intentions beyond this season, while uncontracted gun James Peatling is another weighing rival interest.
The Giants have tabled a six-year deal to retain Perryman amid intense interest from Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, while Cumming is tossing up offers from Adelaide and Port Adelaide as well as a four-year deal to stay.
The club has now matched rival three-year deals to potentially retain Peatling, though a host of teams in the market for the onballer – including Melbourne, St Kilda, Collingwood, West Coast and the Western Bulldogs – are circling.
Veteran defender Nick Haynes is another who has featured semi-regularly for the Giants this season, making eight appearances, but looks destined for Carlton as an unrestricted free agent.
Indeed, the ongoing difficulty the club has had in retaining players is a big reason why the 2019 group perhaps hasn't made it back to the MCG on the last Saturday in September since that afternoon.
A total of 16 of the 22 that played in the 2019 Grand Final remain on an AFL list. However, should both Perryman and Haynes depart this summer, then the majority of those 16 would be playing for a rival side in 2025.
Jacob Hopper and Tim Taranto requested trades to Richmond, Jeremy Cameron departed for Geelong, Aidan Corr headed to North Melbourne, Zac Williams to Carlton, Adam Tomlinson to Melbourne and Jeremy Finlayson to Port Adelaide.
Perryman and Haynes could subsequently join them, vastly outnumbering the list of seven – Sam Taylor, Josh Kelly, Lachie Whitfield, Toby Greene, Harry Himmelberg, Brent Daniels and Adam Kennedy among them – that would have stayed.
And that's why this year's collapse will leave a mark for the Giants. The club is still in the premiership window, its elite talent remains among the best in the competition, Kingsley's style stacks up, and their fantastic recent drafting history would suggest they can and should be able to replace anyone that leaves.
But the challenge only gets harder. The iron was hot, and the Giants didn't strike.
It will make for a summer of regret, but perhaps added motivation, in Western Sydney.