Brisbane Lions coach Craig Starcevich expects "monumental blunders" will haunt his players for months to come after their latest AFLW grand final heartbreak.
The Lions were comprehensively outplayed in their 9.2 (56) to 2.4 (16) defeat to fellow heavyweights North Melbourne at Ikon Park on Saturday night.
It was their fifth loss from seven grand final appearances, and a series of significant errors in key moments proved costly.
None were bigger than consecutive 50-metre penalties paid against Shannon Campbell early in the second quarter, which gifted North's Kate Shierlaw a goal.
Campbell shoved her opponent after a mark and was also penalised for slowing down Shierlaw when she tried to run up the field to take her kick.
Shierlaw was advanced from half-back to the goal square and kicked an easy major - one of six in a row for the Kangaroos in a run that broke the game wide open.
Experienced defender Campbell - an inaugural Lion and two-time premiership player - cut a devastated figure when the final siren sounded.
"She's okay," Starcevich said post-match.
"Watching the game back is going to be painful viewing for a couple of them because there were some monumental sort of blunders there along the way with giving away fifties and so forth.
"But that happens in a footy person's career. You just don't want it to happen in the really big games.
"They're great people, our people, so they'll absorb it and it will be really hard.
"You'll have to sit with it for months before you can get back and rectify things. That's just life as a footballer."
Starcevich said his players "threw the kitchen sink" at North but were unable to bridge the gap their rivals have put on the competition during their record-breaking 27-game winning streak.
He felt the Kangaroos' ability to absorb pressure, break away from congestion and punish the Lions was on another level.
But he also believes "everyone's gettable" with an eye towards putting a stop towards Darren Crocker's juggernaut next season.
Another grand final defeat hasn't diminished the hunger of the competition's last remaining inaugural head coach.
"That's footy, and I think the older you are the more you sort of understand that there's all these sorts of peaks and troughs all the way through," Starcevich said.
"If someone says at the start of the year you're going to be playing on the last weekend - yep, no worries, I'll take that.
"But the risk is you either feel terrific or you feel ordinary, and tonight we all feel ordinary."
