No doubt everyone who loves the Cats is feeling pretty flat today.

Our boys went into Friday night's preliminary final against Adelaide with high hopes, but things didn't go their way and the Crows deservedly marched into their first Grand Final since 1998.

Despite the big margin at the finish, there were a number of Geelong players who emerged from the game with their reputations enhanced.

Joel Selwood tried his heart out as he always does. He and Patty Dangerfield dragged their team back into the contest in the second quarter, while Steven Motlop produced one of his best performances of the season.

Harry Taylor was his usual reliable self down back, as was Andrew Mackie, who ended his career with a performance that typefied his career.

As the skipper said after the game, Mack and fellow retiree Tom Lonergan will be sorely missed as they move on to the next phase of their lives.

The retirements of Mackie and Lonergan continues the transition that has occured over the past four or five years, as so many great premiership players have reached their end of their careers.

But although the Cats' season is over, the thing that makes Geelong a great club is its ability to climb off the canvas and move on.

The Cats will be back bigger and better next season and will be confident of again playing a big role in the September action.

For now, however, we can look forward to seeing the stars of this season put on their finest for tonight's Brownlow Medal count.

Even though our man Patty Dangerfield is ineligible, we'll have plenty of coverage of the event on our social media channels.

And we're keen to get your thoughts on this: How many votes will Danger poll?

Cast you votes using the poll below.