Gold Coast have won their final game of the home and away season, but left the field shattered after letting slip the double chance in the finals.
The Suns needed a solid win to boost their percentage sufficiently to replace Carlton in fourth spot after the Blues' win over Brisbane on Saturday.
But instead their 9.8 (62) to 7.11 (53) victory at Henson Park left them just 0.2 percentage points behind Carlton.
GWS could be proud of their efforts, having fought hard before a home crowd to send off the retiring Alicia Eva and Isabel Huntington their final games.
Eva was an inaugural AFLW player 10 years ago with Collingwood and served as the Giants' captain for five years.
Huntington was a number one draft pick and All-Australian, though three separate ACL injuries plagued her six-year career.
It seemed it was going to be a walk in the Park for the Suns, who dominated the first half around the stoppage and in midfield and led the clearances 16-10 thanks to Charlie Rowbottom and Lucy Single, who had five each.
But the Giants came out with a bang in the third quarter.
They led disposals 68–46 and converted from eight of their 10 entries inside-50, kept the Suns scoreless and took an 11-point lead before the final term.
“We've just got to get our hunt going, get after the footy, and then we can go from there, but we just lost the contest there really, really badly,” Suns coach Rhys Shaw said at three quarter time.
Rowbottom did everything she could in the fourth quarter to claw back the lead and kicked a goal in the dying minutes to put the Suns back in front.
She ended with 33 disposals, two goals and 12 clearances, but didn’t have much to celebrate after the Suns' ninth win of the season.
Gold Coast dropped to fifth after Carlton’s 6.4 (40) -to 5.5 (35) over Brisbane on Saturday - also their ninth win, and just enough to hang onto fourth place for the finals.
“Obviously we’re happy to get away with the four points, but I wanted to finish fourth,” Rowbottom said post-game.
“We’ll take the long way home”.
There were tears of celebration as the Giants farewelled Eva and Huntington after the final siren, in scenes echoed in Melbourne.
Essendon's 4.14 (38) to 4.7 (31) win over Collingwood handed outgoing Bombers coach Natalie Wood one last win and Pies boss Sam Wright one final loss.
The sacked Wood and Wright - who stepped down after a time of turmoil at Collingwood - embraced post-game as Magpie Sabrina Frederick and Bomber Sophie Alexander were chaired from the ground.
Frederick played with the Brisbane Lions in the inaugural AFLW season before moving to Richmond in 2019, cementing her name in Punt Road’s history books for kicking the Tigers’ first AFLW goal.
Alexander also started her career at Collingwood in 2019, before joining the Dons in 2022 for their inaugural season.
