I'm tired of the excuses. Collingwood had a nightmare of a year with injuries and while their situation did come good at the right time they mostly got through it. Their most important player was missing for their final against us, it was all laid out perfectly and people still want to winge about our circumstances. If the team actually thought like this then it shows mental fragility which I've said all along can be changed but needs to be checked.
I know people are getting tired of hearing this but when you lose 4 finals at home then I see no problem asking these questions, you don't continue to sit there and make excuses. You do that after 1 or maybe 2 tops. Do I think we got unlucky? Yes of course, especially with the Petty injury. But there are plenty that will point out that our gameplan stacked up and that we only lost by single margins and if we were more accurate blah blah. What's the excuse for that?
I'm beyond caring about hurting feelings or putting noses out of joints with this view. If you don't like it, please yourselves. When clubs like Port and Brisbane have exited finals like this in the past the overwhelming view here is that they choked. Use the same brush.
But the question is about the window and if it is closing, no it is not. Ib my view we could take a little step back this year but in the era of free agency and smart drafting we can very much put ourselves back up near 12:00 by acquiring new pieces. Our core is still strong.