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There was no dream finish for Daniel Giansiracusa’s Western Bulldogs career on Sunday but not because of their cruel loss.
Devon Smith’s last-minute heartbreaker for Bulldogs fans wrecked Giansiracusa’s chances of going out a winner in his 265th and final AFL game.
But despite the six-point loss, this wasn’t a bad way to finish.
Because Giansiracusa’s time at Whitten Oval is far from done.
The western suburbs-raised forward will step into a coaching role under Brendan McCartney, keeping him at his local club.
Giansiracusa said there was plenty of feeling in the build-up to the game and during the see-sawing match.
“It’s an emotional game all the time, the week was pretty overwhelming,” he said.
“I just love this footy club and it showed why a bit during the week.”
There was some sadness at lost opportunity, with three shots in the final five minutes without a goal.
“Yeah, disappointing wasn’t it but there’s no fairytales in footy, I’ve learned that in 15 years,” he said.
“Unfortunate but as Macca said, we’ve got to get better and we will.
“We’re excited about where we’re heading and I think we’re on the way up.”
The win-loss standings belie that confidence, having slipped a game to seven wins and three percentage points on last season.
But the Bulldogs, who do a strong trade in resilience, also jumped a rung on the ladder to 14th.
McCartney said he was glad to have the 32-year-old in his coaching team.
“There’ll be some area coaching and he’s got a special little knack of being able to work with players who just fall off the perch,” he said.
“They just fall out of the AFL team and we can’t let them go through the cracks.”
“We’ll make him a really good coach.”
The senior coach made clear one of his off-season priorities would be in Giansiracusa’s position.
“We clearly need to find some way to take more marks of the contested variety inside forward 50,” he said.
“We’ll keep looking at ways to create a forward line that’s fluent and has chemistry.”
McCartney was firm in where he saw the Bulldogs headed.
“We’ll get better. We have to. And we will,” he concluded.
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