Dodd said the fact his team had played so well after going down to 10 men after 10 minutes and still came away with nothing was hard to take.

He said: "To be honest, I think it hurts more. To know that we were so close and couldn't quite get there. The boys are very disappointed that we couldn't finish this season off with some sort of silverware after the things we've achieved.

Adelaide went into the final as a rank underdogs after suffering a 6-0 aggregate loss in the major semi-final. Dodd said it would have been easy for Adelaide to just accept Melbourne  were a better team, but the true fighting qualities of the club had shone through on Saturday.

He said: "As 'Viddy' said, every one of the players who went out there can hold their heads high. They did a great job."

Dodd's heartbreak was as much about his own personal performance. He twice had excellent chances to give Adelaide the lead and twice he was unable to seriously test Michael Theoklitos in Melbourne's goal.

He said: "I made decent contact with it, I saw it bounce of his chest and I thought I might be able to get to the rebound but I couldn't get there. We had a couple of other good opportunities."

Adelaide goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic, who was reserve keeper for Melbourne in the 2006/07 Grand Final, said the Reds had earned some respect from the effort in the Grand Final, but it was silverware the players were after.

"We played some good football and I think we got a lot of respect from supporters and the fans from Adelaide," he said. "All that mattered really was the result, we wanted to hold up the trophy but it wasn't to be."

"There's no trophies to show for it. The Asian Champions League, even though it was a tough gig and we played some good teams, there was still no trophies."