There's only one way I know how to deal with the disappointment of Sunday's grand final.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And that's pulling the boots on again and getting back out there.
So on Saturday afternoon, I'll be playing for Dandenong City in the Victorian National Premier League, joining Carl Valeri and Adrian Leijer to help them out for the rest of the season.
No doubt I'll live with the penalty kick and the shoot-out loss for the rest of my life, it's been hard to get my head around the way it finished on Sunday.
Thankfully I've had some really good teammates and friends around the Glory who have helped myself and Andy Keogh this week.
It's an incredibly difficult thing to comprehend that 20 years in professional football ends that way, but I'm still very proud of everything I've achieved.
I've seen and heard some of the comments, but know this, I am my own harshest critic.
I always have been, it's one of the major driving forces behind my whole career.
Why the panenka chip down the middle?
To be perfectly honest, I wasn't even nervous when preparing to take it, even though we were already behind in the shoot-out.
Andrew Redmayne had dived hard every time before then and I was confident he would again. Instead he picked my brain.
It felt all week like the fairytale would happen and Perth would finish the season with the premiership and championship double, but it just wasn't meant to be.
Still, we won the league by eight points, an amazing achievement in any competition in the world, even factoring in the Australian culture of putting finals importance above everything else.
We played 27 games during the regular season and lost just three, despite the travel demands of living in a city like Perth.
Thank you to everyone who has reached out in support this week and who has read this column in recent years or has been part of my career from the NSL, overseas, with Sydney FC, the Wanderers and Perth.
So now I'm off to start the next chapter in Melbourne, a holiday and life after football can wait.
After that, I'm looking forward to completing my coaching qualifications, start some development programs with kids and come home to Wollongong.
While you're with us the Illawarra Mercury is offering sport readers 20% off an annual digital subscription. Sign up to stay up to date with all the local sports you love for only $3.00 a week. Terms and conditions apply.
