Tuggeranong Vikings captain Isaac Thompson has been here before - and it never gets easier.
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The Vikings sunk to a heartbreaking one-point defeat at the hands of the Canberra Royals in the John I Dent Cup decider at Viking Park on Saturday.
The 32-31 defeat means Tuggeranong round out the year without a premiership across the senior grades.
"It's pretty horrible to be honest," Thompson said.
"Last time we felt this was 2015. It feels pretty similar to that. It's a tough pill to swallow but we've got a young group of boys here so they'll want to bounce back next year.
"The boys only had a taste of what winning feels like, and now they're got a taste of what losing feels like. They'll be a lot better for that."
The Vikings put themselves behind the eight ball in the opening half when Royals scored moments after Tuggeranong centre Andrew Robinson saw yellow.
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They clawed their way back to a six-point lead heading into the final 10 minutes before man of the match Jason Swain split the defence to score his second.
Andy Muirhead then pounced on a Pedro Rolando grubber in the corner in a passage of play which would ultimately prove the difference.
Thompson admits he needn't look far for where things went wrong.
"It was our discipline. Too many high tackles, we were close to getting another yellow in that second half," Thompson said.
"It has been an issue over the past three weeks. It kept Uni in the game [in the preliminary final], and it cost us the game against Royals the week before that.
"We'll have a big look at that for next year."
Tuggeranong had already been denied one premiership when the Gungahlin Eagles claimed a 24-11 win in the second grade grand final.
It came after the Queanbeyan Whites stunned Royals to claim the Colts premiership in a thrilling 27-21 victory.
Uni-Norths rubbed salt into the Royals' wounds when they claimed the women's title in a canter with a 40-19 thumping, while the Gungahlin Eagles toppled Goulburn 28-21 in the First Division first grade decider.
It came after the Dan Penca-inspired Queanbeyan Whites outmuscled Wests to claim a 22-5 win in the First Division second grade decider.
Wests finished with 13 men on the park while Queanbeyan had one sent and another seeing yellow following an ugly brawl. It mattered little in the end.