A fuming Geelong coach Mark Thompson has said he was nonplussed by the awarding of a free kick against veteran forward Cameron Mooney that cost the Cats a win in Friday night's qualifying final against St Kilda.
But Thompson, who was warned by an AFL official not to say anything he might regret at his post-match media conference, stopped short of criticising the umpires.
Under siege from the surging Cats, the Saints were clinging to a four-point lead with one minute left on the clock when Mooney laid a heavy tackle on Saints defender James Gwilt.
Cameron Ling gathered the loose ball and skidded it through from 30 metres for what seemed almost certain to be the winning goal.
But the ball was recalled when umpire Matt Stevic deemed that Mooney had pushed Gwilt in the back.
"You write, whatever you like, but you write the truth about that last incident," Thompson told reporters at his post-match media conference.
"I don't want to risk any fine, so I'm not going to say anything about the umpires."
Asked to explain what he felt as the drama unfolded, Thompson said: "I didn't pick up that they'd pulled it back."
"I was quite amazed to see all the players go up and the crowd went up and we started to say, there's a minute left in the game, let's start setting up ... and then, how did this happen?"
"Then I seen the replay and that's history."
Thompson conceded his players made life difficult for themselves by kicking 1.7 in the final term and paid the penalty for a poor first half.
He did his best to put a positive spin on the result.
"In some ways it's not bad to be playing next week," he said.
"I know that if you lose you're out and you don't get the rest, but the continuity of playing is something new at this time of the year."
"I said the next game we play, if you're not prepared to play well at the start then don't turn up and play with this club and I meant it."
"You see the boys jumping in late in the game when they're chance to win when it was really desperate, we want people to be desperate at the start of the match."
Thompson singled out Josh Hunt for criticism for conceding three goals in the second quarter to Stephen Milne and conceded he was disappointed in Joel Selwood' game.
The 22-year-old managed just four possessions in the first half and failed to impose himself on the contest in his customary style.
"Yes he was (disappointing) and he would know that, he was bitterly disappointed," Thompson said.
"If he doesn't go well Joel gets wound up and thinks he's letting everybody down and it makes it worse."
"He got his game going in the second half and made a contribution but I don't think that will happen again next week with Joel, he'll be ready to play."
Thompson said James Podsiadly who's available after suspension would be considered for next week's cut-throat semi-final against the winner of Saturday's clash between Fremantle and Hawthorn at Subiaco.
"We've just got to pick the right mix, pick the right side that's going to beat the opposition we're going to play," he said.
"He'll be a good chance to play but not an automatic selection."