Former GWS Giants co-captain Phil Davis has opened up on the severe emotional toll last year's heavy grand final loss to Richmond had on him personally.
Davis was made the scapegoat of the side's crushing 89-point loss, after struggling to contain Tigers forward Jack Riewoldt, who kicked five goals in the match.
The key defender was hampered by injury throughout last year's finals and was in serious doubt in the lead up to grand final, so much so that he was put through a fitness test on the MCG an hour before the bounce to declare his availability.
In a tell-all interview with AFL.com.au, Davis admits the public scrutiny over his performance hurt in the wake of the embarrassing loss.
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"I always knew that if we played badly the story was going to be me," Davis told AFL.com.au.
"From a performance [perspective] was I at my absolute best? No, but I thought I competed hard and it hurt me for my performance to be scrutinised so much because I'm a proud player.
"I think when people say 'you shouldn't have played, you were clearly not right' - I just felt at times some of the commentary was ad hoc and they were just shooting from the hip.
"My social media… I turned it off, I deleted all my apps for a week because it was hard, it's just a consistent reminder.
"Everyone tries to get to the last two, and as a kid you think about winning the Norm Smith or kicking the last goal, and to have your dream linked with people telling you that you've failed, that was challenging, even after having been around the game for a while."
Davis admitted the criticism of him post the loss, on top of what was overall a testing year physically for him was still taking a toll on him a week after the devastating loss.
The 29-year-old revealed a chat with coach Leon Cameron and other members of the Giants' football department was where the emotions came out.
"You can say whatever you want like 'I don't read social media' ... but it [public scrutiny] does affect you, it still gets in," the 29-year-old said.
"I remember my end of year review. I was still emotional, five days after, because it had been a big week, the build-up to it and then what happened on the day.
"Myself, Leon, Mark McVeigh, in a room. I was upset, I didn't fully break down, but I was clearly emotional, and the chat had nothing to do with football really.
"The year was a challenging year, it was an emotional roller-coaster from which you've got to recover. We spoke more about how I had to get my body back and then mentally re-charge because it was a difficult period.
"In that moment, and this is what is hard to get across to people, everything is heightened. In that grand final, everything is heightened. After it, everything is heightened. You add on to that the stresses of everything else, I was just exhausted. Add to that, failure, and that's what it was – we lost a grand final.
"Plus, me dealing with more scrutiny than I'd ever had to deal with in my career. I think I handled it OK, but it is still hard, no matter what your skill set is."
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How upset was Phil after the Grand Final? The former GWS skipper opens up to @barrettdamian. Must watch 👀 https://t.co/m9pegq1hKz
— AFL.com.au (@AFLcomau) February 27, 2020
Having adopted the Giants' co-captaincy alongside Callan Ward since arriving at the club in 2012, the pair have relinquished the duties to Stephen Coniglio to lead the club in 2020 and beyond.
And with the Giants tipped to again challenge for this year's flag, Davis said he and his teammates are determined to ensure last year's devastation does not shape them.
"I think you'll get over the fact that it's a missed opportunity," the former Crow said.
"I was sitting there reflecting on the NBA the other day and it's 30 teams trying to win one championship - it's so hard.
"We're 18 teams trying to win one. It's very very hard. To get to the final two it's taken me 11 years to get there so I feel like I've had some level of perspective of how hard it is to get there.
"The grand final we played will never define the Giants and it will never define me."
