For all the colour of Grand Final day in Melbourne...

"You're probably right," he said when quizzed on if there was a need for it.

"I'm a little bit against, I'm a bit of a traditionalist. But something so significant that has such a massive impact we should, yeah."

The Reds coach said he hadn't seen the send off incident in replay but said he'd been told there wasn't much in it.

"I think everyone had that feeling that we could win."

Vidmar said the Reds were gutted after the 1-0 loss. "I certainly thought we had the upper hand and unfortunately when you go down to ten men, it changes your game plan and made it very difficult.

"But I couldn't be any prouder of the players tonight.

"That was a fantastic effort, they wore their hearts on their sleeves.

"If we had 11 men on the park, we would have got a lot more out of it.

"I certainly thought that we had the upper hand. Unfortunately when you go down to ten men, it changes your game plan, and made if very difficult, but I couldn't be any prouder of the players tonight."

Vidmar's assessment of his team's effort was the polar opposite to the spray he gave his men two weeks ago. The Adelaide coach said each one of his players had carried out their job to the letter and with the passion required in such an important match.

"It was a fantastic effort. They really wore their hearts on their sleeves tonight, they did everyone proud, they did the state proud, they did themselves proud, everyone involved in the club," he said.

"They had a lot of passion and a lot of pride in that performance tonight. Unfortunately, sometimes it doesn't go you way, but I can't fault anyone tonight. It was a magnificent effort and we certainly deserved more."

Vidmar had talked up 'parking a bus' across Melbourne's goal during the week, but approached the game with an attacking philosophy, starting with a defensive three until Cristiano's send-off changed his plans. He thought the midfield battle was key to the match and felt Adelaide had done everything in its power to nullify the influence of Carlos Hernandez.

"We knew that the midfield was going to be the key in terms of winning the game and I thought our midfielders, in fact everyone, did exactly the job we had to do tonight," he said.

"There was a belief that we probably hadn't seen during the course of the year. I think everyone had the felling we could win and certainly even at half time, the buzz in the change room was fantastic. They knew they had to do the work and they went out and continued the work," he said.

"The focus was fantastic, the lead-up was fantastic. I'm just really gutted for the players."

Vidmar said he felt a tumultuous and ultimately unsuccessful finals series will yield lots of positives and that the club has made significant progress this season

"The new season will see some changes and you don't know what's going to happen next year, but certainly the achievements of the club to date have been fantastic. It's our second Grand Final, we've had the final of the Asian Champions League. We've beaten some super teams in the ACL through the course of the year," he said.

"It's been a tough season, but the mentality of the group is what's surprised me most. When the chips are down, they seem to find something extra."

United skipper Travis Dodd added that the loss hurt more than the 6-0 drubbing against Victory two years ago.

"Tonight we were so close. The boys are very disappointed we couldn't finish it off this season with some silverware."