GEELONG midfielder James Kelly says he's not sure where the 2008 grand final against Hawthorn was lost, but he knows why.

Kelly was one of the quieter Cats on the day in gathering just 10 touches, just half his season average, and said the bottom line was that the Hawks played better football when it counted.

"We haven't had much time to reflect yet, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter; we were just beaten by a better side on the day," he said.

"That's all that matters, that's what we're going to look at.

"I'm sure once we get back to training and over the next few days, the coaches will look at the game, and once we get back to training we'll assess it from there and see where went wrong."

Kelly said the Cats couldn't get it together in the last term when the game was still up for grabs.

"To (Hawthorn's) credit, they kept going, they dug deep and they played really well.

"It just felt like everything was going their way and we couldn't do anything right, but it's still no excuse.

"We lost, and that's where it sits."


The Cats no longer carry the much-vaunted super-team that they had worn for a lot of the last couple of years, Kelly believes.

"I think a good thing to come out of it is we're back to square one now – we're probably underdogs next year now, and we just want to attack next season and win another premiership."

The failure of the Geelong forward line has been well documented, and Kelly said it definitely made life more difficult for the players further up the ground, who provided an amazing 62 inside-50s for the forwards to feast on.

"It just makes it feel like hard work when you just can't get those guys through – we felt we were playing really well, but we just weren't converting.

"It just makes the day even harder."