Brendon Santalab has always been a bold player, a big-game goal-scorer, never afraid to take a risk when he thought it was needed.
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So while Sunday's penalty shoot-out loss to Sydney FC was heartbreaking, it takes none of the shine off a decorated and remarkable career.
The pressure was already on him by the time he stepped up, after Andy Keogh's earlier miss.
Shoot-outs are all about risk-taking and decision-making, players and goalkeepers are scouted for their tendencies and Andrew Redmayne had obviously been very busy on the goalline trying to distract the shooters.
But he'd also been committing to diving one way or the other on each penalty, so there was reason to believe the panenka would work.
As disappointing as it is for him, Santalab and Perth should take great pride in being the dominant force in the A-League this season.
Finishing the league eight points clear of second-placed Sydney is a huge achievement.
The grand final never reached any great heights, even though it came to a similar conclusion to the famous 2000 NSL penalties when the Wolves fought back from 3-nil to win.
While on that, it was great to see Wolves defender David Cervinski, a mentor of mine, remembered in the pre-game after passing away last week.
Sydney had claim to win it, denied a legitimate goal when Michael Zullo was ruled off-side leading to Adam Le Fondre's goal.
They can't all be fairytales, but Santalab will always be remembered as one of the greats to come from this region.
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