An average of less than 1/2 a point per game! That was the difference between playing and not playing finals.
But what bothers me is that when teams just miss out like we did this year, they can sometimes go backwards for a year afterwards (see Saints this year after just missing out last year).
So what do I think needs to happen - Well I agree with an earlier post that said that we tired during the last few weeks of the year. A few weeks back I said that the injuries to experienced players during the middle of the year meant that our younger players weren't getting the opportunity to be rested for general soreness at critical times. Another pre-season into our still young list will help overcome this if we happen to have a similar run of injuries next year (hell forbid). For those lamenting our disposal efficiency, we were almost smack on the AFL average for this, and look we finished mid-table. So some improvement to this will mean a big difference to how we go next year too.
Overall - not all sweetness and light, but not all gloom and doom either.