After hovering around the summit of the A-League for almost the entirety of the season, the opportunity was there for Brisbane Roar to clinch a third premiership.
In need of a win to secure top spot in A-League season 2015-16, Roar were assigned the task of travelling to Melbourne and besting an understrength Victory team in order to usurp pacesetters Adelaide United.
However, their efforts ultimately proved fruitless as the Lawrence Thomas-inspired Melbourne team ground out a 0-0 draw, leaving the men in orange to reflect on what might have been.
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A visibly frustrated Ross Aloisi summed up the wide-ranging frustrations of younger brother John’s team and Roar fans, hurling a bottle into a wall in the AAMI Park dressing room.
The dust has since settled, and Roar captain Matt McKay believes his Roar side is ready to move on and put its best foot forward.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Football Show, McKay says his team has put the near miss behind it and is ready to launch a fresh assault on the now travelling Victory at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
“We were pretty disappointed initially,” McKay said.
“Everyone’s spirits are still high, so we’ve forgotten about it now, and I think if you look at our squad, not too many of us are fazed by things and they’re good signs.
“We’ve had a tough year up here, especially early on in preseason and everyone adapted really well, so I don’t see why we can’t adapt again in finals.
“He (John Aloisi) said ‘it is what it is, you played a great game, but life goes on. Be disappointed, but we’ve got finals and that’s where it really counts’.
“Obviously no one remembers the premiership winner, they all remember the grand final winner.”
The Roar swept aside Kevin Muscat’s team 5-0 as little as five weeks ago, yet McKay says Brisbane will read little into the result.
“I don’t think we draw too much from it (the 5-0 win).
“To have three games (against Victory) so close, we’ll know each other quite well.
“They’re a quality side still and we’ll make sure we play to our best. If we play to our best, we’ll come very close to getting a result.”
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