Sydney stand-in captain Dane Rampe was “extremely proud” of his side despite their season coming to a heartbreaking end on Friday night.
The Swans looked on track to defeat Fremantle and make the grand final, but they ran out of legs late as the Dockers stormed home with the final six goals to seal a famous 12-point win.
But Sydney lost no fans with their performance after pushing the premiership favourites all the way despite missing a host of senior players.
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As well as being without the Pullman Five — Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon — the Swans also lost skipper Callum Mills and veteran Harry Cunningham to injury.
Despite that, they went within touching distance of pulling off the miracle victory.
Rampe, who was elevated to captain for the preliminary final, was devasted by the loss.
The veteran left the field in tears in what could be the final game of his career. The 36-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season.
“It’s hard to put it into words right now,” he told Seven after the game.
“It’s gut-wrenching, devastating.
“But I mean I’m overwhelmed with pride in what in what we’ve been able to do over the last couple of weeks.
“That was an outstanding win by Fremantle. They should we should take a lot of confidence from that and shows the quality outfit that they are.”
Rampe added that the club has taken positive steps in the right direction in gaining the respect and trust of the wider community since the hotel scandal that derailed their season.
“I’m extremely proud, humbled to be leading these boys out here,” he said.
“We didn’t get that result tonight. But I felt over the last couple of weeks we took a couple of steps in the right direction towards getting back the respect and trust of not only our fans and our club, but the AFL community in general.”
Rampe’s future remains unclear, but if it was the final game of his career then he goes out as one of the club’s greatest.
Coming off the rookie list, the tough defender played 289 games.
But he never tasted premiership success, having played in four losing grand finals.
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