Swans reserves coach Henry Playfair says he is disappointed his team were unable to win the inaugural NEAFL Eastern Conference final, but didn’t want it to detract too much from what has been a standout season.

Ainslie defeated the Swans reserves by 52 points in last Saturday’s decider at Manuka Oval, and Playfair pointed to a lack of contributors on the day for his side’s out of character performance.

“It was a disappointing way to finish,” Playfair told SwansTV.

“We certainly expected to go down (to Canberra) and perform well, but we had a lot of players who really didn’t deliver on the day.

“You can’t play like that against an opposition like Ainslie - a really proud club, who played with a lot of spirit. They were certainly the better team in the end.”

Playfair paid tribute to several of the Academy players who continued their impressive 2011 form in the final, with only a handful of listed players winning their position on the day.

“The Academy players, in many ways, kept us in the game,” Playfair said. “Jackson Potter, Kane Murphy and James Brain - you can’t question their effort.”

“Nathan Gordon and Andrejs Everitt had pretty good games from the listed players, and Mark Seaby had a pretty good game as well.

“Apart from those five or six, we didn’t really have many others in the same boat, where you could say they had a genuine four-quarter game.”

The reserves weren’t helped by game-ending injuries to Jarred Moore and Campbell Heath, as well as other minor injuries to Potter and Brett Meredith, which had an impact on the Swans rotations off the bench.

While admitting to being ‘flat’ for the days following Saturday’s loss, Playfair can now reflect on a pretty successful campaign for his side and what lies ahead next year.

“The way we played throughout the year, I can think of three or four games off the top of my head where we played some really outstanding football against some reasonable opposition,” he said. “To have those four quarter efforts are what we have to aspire to every week.”

“I think I’m really starting to get my head around next year and the things we’ve got going forward, so that’s starting to excite me a little bit and it should excite the fans about the next year as well.”

In his first year at the helm of the reserves, Playfair said he is most proud of the role he played in getting several players prepared for senior football.

“It does give me a bit of satisfaction working closely with the younger guys who have just come in, to try and help them out in their quest to play senior football,” he said.

“Some of the players who have come in from other clubs, in Matt Spangher, Andrejs Everitt, Luke Parker and Alex Johnson, for them to play some consistent senior footy is obviously a really good reflection of the reserves side.

“It’s also equally enjoyable when players who haven’t played senior football still play well with us … and hopefully some of those guys in the next few years can crack it and get a shot at doing it in the seniors.”