Western Sydney Wanderers right-back Scott Neville is adamant his side will find a way to get over the "devastation" of losing Sunday's A-League grand final and compete for the championship next season.

The Wanderers fell to their third grand final defeat in four seasons, succumbing 3-1 to Adelaide United in front of 50,119 fans at Adelaide Oval - a record crowd for an A-League match outside Brisbane and Melbourne.

But while the city celebrated the victory well into Sunday night and through Monday morning, the mood in the Wanderers camp was far more sober as they headed back to Sydney - even if Neville promised his teammates would return more determined than ever.

"I don't know if there's a missing link. But to finish to second in the league and come so close in a grand final, we've just got to fine-tune a few little things and we'll be there next season again. And that time, we'll go a bit further," he said. "It's still pretty fresh, so the emotion hasn't kicked in in some ways as we haven't re-watched the game.

"I'm sure once we look at it, we'll realise what we could have done better as a collective group. We'll analyse it and move forward next year and be back bigger or stronger."

While several of the Wanderers players ended up drowning their sorrows in the company of Adelaide's victorious team as Sunday night wore on, in the immediate aftermath, the mood was raw.

"Everyone was pretty quiet straight after the game and then the boss [Tony Popovic] had a chat with us after at dinner and just said that we should keep our heads held high," Neville said. "We've been on a journey all year, it's just disappointing not to finish the journey the way we wanted to. To make it to a grand final is a great achievement but we're all just disappointed we didn't finish the job off."

When asked what went wrong for the Wanderers, Neville said it was hard to specify - except that their first half was too far below their usual standards.

"We weren't sharp enough and we didn't play our normal game. I think we went away from the structure we're usually so used to playing and that affected us," he said. "In the second half we went back to the structure we usually have and you could see the strengths and qualities of our team. But it was too little, too late by that time."

The defender paid tribute to Adelaide's turnaround from being winless after eight games to becoming champions, saying they'd surprised the entire league.

"Early in the season, everyone was writing them off and I think they were last in November or December, so the turnaround for them has been fantastic. They're a tough team to play against," he said. "They've got some quality players in there and I think we didn't nullify them well enough early on. Congratulations to them, they were better on the day."

But Neville denied that the boisterous home crowd was a significant advantage for Adelaide and also felt that his side were every bit as fit as the champions despite playing extra-time last weekend and having two less days to prepare.

"I think in the second half we actually overran Adelaide but it was just in the first half their pressure and the way they applied themselves was a bit too much," he said. "For some reason, we weren't quite up to it early in the game and to come back from going two goals down was a bit too much to ask for.

"But Adelaide Oval is a fantastic stadium and to have the grand final showpiece there, on the last day of the season, was great. You could see that by the whole occasion."

If there was one small consolation for Neville, it was being on the end of a superb team move for the Wanderers, one that ended with him blasting a shot past Eugene Galekovic to make it 2-1 - temporarily spurring hope of a comeback.

"I just closed my eyes and hit it. My Dad reminded me that I'd scored in every A-League season so far and if I didn't score in this one, I couldn't come home for the off-season," he said. "But I'd trade it all to have a winner's medal to be honest with you."