It was a strong season for Melbourne City, with a record-high third placed finish and the development of exciting youngster Daniel Arzani the highlights of Joyce's debut campaign.

Although it was a moment of magic that denied Melbourne a maiden A-League Grand Final appearance, Joyce was ready to accept defeat. 

“At the minute, [we are] frustrated, disappointed, upset for a lot of people around the football club," he said.

"But you know you’ve got to take it on the chin really, dust yourselves down and look at the positives from the season and then work over the summer to get things better and see if we can keep improving for next season.”

“They’ve played some great football [this season], they’ve scored some great goals, they have players in this league who have done well, with an experienced manager and they just managed it better than us."

City took the lead through a scrappy Bruno Fornaroli effort before a resurgent Jets dominated the second half, equalising through a Riley McGree wonder goal before sealing victory through Jason Hoffman.

“I thought the first half you are coming to an experienced, well-organised team on the home ground with a big, big crowd and I thought we took the sting out of them," Joyce continued.

"I didn’t think – barring set plays – they caused too many problems [in the] first half and we were reasonable value for a lead and possibly with a little bit of luck we could have had one or two things going our way during that period.

"The second half, I think the first goal [for Newcastle] is fortunate to say the least, it gives everybody a lift in the stadium, we are still up against it, we’re still weathering it a little bit and the second goal is a mistake from [Osama] Malik who was possibly one of our better players on the night.”