It was the end of the road for the Werribee Tigers in the Victorian Football League for this season.
The “travelling Tigers” missed out on the finals by percentage after a 15-point loss to Casey Demons at Casey Fields on Saturday night.
The Tigers finished level on eight wins with five teams placed eighth to 12th on the ladder.
Unfortunately, they had the worst percentage of those teams with 82.48, compared to eighth-placed Collingwood, which snuck in the top eight with 96.83.
Werribee gave it a red hot crack against top-four side Casey, but came up just short.
A slow start had the Tigers trailing by 21 points and on the back foot at half-time.
The Tigers came out after the main break with intent, piling on five goals to two to cut the deficit to three points at three-quarter time.
The comeback was sparked in the midfield by the ever reliable Matt Hanson and his on-ball partner in crime, Tom Gribble. Hanson had the ball on a string, finishing with 24 kicks and six handballs and applying nine tackles.
Youngster Dom Brew had a game-high 11 tackles, while Matt Munro and Josh Corbett kicked two goals apiece.
Werribee’s errant kicking for goal would prove costly again – the Tigers’ last five scoring shots were all behinds.
They desperately needed an early goal in the last term to create scoreboard pressure on Casey, but it never came.
A goal to Dylan Gordon and a third to Bayley Fritsch gave Casey the breathing space it needed to secure the win.
It is the end of the alignment era for Werribee.
It was their last game aligned with North Melbourne before entering a new era as a stand-alone club next season.
The Tigers will have the luxury of playing back at their home ground after spending the whole of 2017 at away venues while Avalon Airport Oval undergoes a multi-million dollar redevelopment.
What will the Tigers’ 2017 season be remembered for?
Happy away days: There is nothing sweeter than a good away win and Werribee did a lot of that this season.
The Tigers won eight games – all on the road.
They sung the club song in far away places such as Ballarat, Beaconsfield, Craigieburn and Wangaratta, and a few venues closer to home such as North Melbourne, Carlton, Coburg and Hoppers Crossing.
More importantly, Werribee picked up new supporters along the way and promoted the city of Wyndham.
Comeback wins: Werribee trailed big in three of its wins – against Collingwood in round five, Northern Blues in round nine and Port Melbourne, its last win of the season, in round 15.
The best comeback had to be when the Tigers overturned a 41-point quarter-time deficit to beat Collingwood by 11 points.
If cliffhanger finishes are more your thing, the victory over Port Melbourne in the dying minutes was one to savour.
Entering time-on in the last quarter, the Tigers found a way to victory with late goals from Tom Gribble and Cameron Zurhaar.
Missed opportunity: Werribee spent most of the season in the top eight, but floundered late.
As it panned out, all the Tigers needed to do was win one of their last four matches of the season to reach the finals, but they bombed out in every single one of them.
Matt’s the man: Midfielder Matt Hanson was so consistent all season that he was again mentioned as a possible AFL draftee.
Werribee coach John Lamont endorsed his top onballer numerous times and is all ears if any recruiters want to discuss his game.
Rebounding defender Ryley Barrack is another who could garner interest at the draft table.
The Tigers’ senior best-and-fairest could be a two-horse race between Hanson and Barrack.
