For Brett Ratten, pride is everything after the fall.
Sunday’s AFL match against St Kilda is the ultimate dead end for the Carlton coach – neither team can make the finals and he is officially out of a job at the final siren.
The Blues confirmed on Thursday that they are sacking Ratten after more than five years in the job.
The shock loss to Gold Coast last weekend ended their top-eight hopes and rapidly accelerated Ratten’s demise.
Ratten has insisted on coaching this Sunday at Etihad Stadium, saying he wanted to finish what he started.
No one would have blamed him had he decided otherwise.
But apart from his determination, this is also not the end as far as Ratten is concerned – he considers himself a career coach.
The galling point for Carlton and St Kilda is that for every season since 2006, they would either be in the top eight now or playing for a finals berth.
St Kilda are ninth with 11 wins and Carlton are below them on percentage.
Up to this season, 12 wins had become the accepted top-eight benchmark.
The Saints are two games behind eighth-placed North Melbourne, but they have a better percentage than every side from fifth to eighth.
One glaring problem for St Kilda has been inconsistency – if they beat Carlton on Sunday, it will be the first time since rounds 15 and 16 and only the third time this season that they have won successive games.
While Sunday’s three games are all dead rubbers, they will mean different things to different teams.
Richmond, like Carlton and St Kilda, are lamenting a near-miss.
They lost six games by 12 points or less.
But the Tigers have managed to channel their frustration into an encouraging end to the season.
They are 12th on 10 wins and set themselves a goal to win four of their last five games.
Richmond should beat Port Adelaide at the MCG and finish 11-11, their best win-loss record since 2008, but coach Damien Hardwick has lamented a string of narrow defeats which cruelled their finals hopes.
“To have the amount of losses we did by a close margin indicates we’re not doing things consistently enough over time,” Hardwick said.
“The important thing is we’re setting up a base camp at the summit.
“We’re just not quite there.”
Brisbane also will want to carry their late-season momentum into the summer with a Sunday twilight win over the Western Bulldogs at the `Gabba – the last game of the home-and-away season.
The Lions have been one of the surprises of the year, winning nine games to climb out of the bottom four.
They highlighted their improvement a fortnight ago with the shock win over premiership hopefuls Adelaide.
But ultimately, whoever wins on Sunday, all six teams are like Ratten – they are playing for pride alone.
The year cannot end quickly enough for the Bulldogs and Port Adelaide, who only have five wins apiece.
