Dennington coach Melissa Burt is unsure what role she will play with the club next year after the Dogs’ bid for a fourth consecutive flag came up short on Saturday.
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The A grade leader and key defender said an element of complacency and a hungry opponent conspired against her side.
“They got a bit of momentum and we dropped our heads a bit,” Burt said of Nirranda’s final quarter charge.
“They just worked so hard, they were all heart out there.”
Burt said she was proud of her team, which had shouldered the heavy expectations of a fourth consecutive flag throughout the year.
“I guess there could have been a little bit of complacency but Nirranda has worked really hard and Steph has worked really hard for this, she has done a great job,” she said.
“Persistence definitely pays off.”
But the sustained run of success had taken a toll.
“There has been a lot of sore bodies,” she said.
“We will take the off-season to re-evaluate, we will be hanging around the club, not sure in what capacity.”
Nirranda coach Steph Townsend paid tribute to the Dogs’ golden run, which leaves them alongside Old Collegians as the only other club to win three flags in a row in the competition’s 28-year history.
"Dennington has been the benchmark not just this season but for the last three years,” she said.
“Credit to Dennington, geez they made us work hard for it.”