Dual Brownlow medallist Nat Fyfe believes the heartbreaking finish to his storied career was fitting, but insists Fremantle are poised to have “five or six bites at winning a premiership” over the coming years.

Fyfe played his 248th and final game in the Dockers’ devastating one-point elimination final loss to Gold Coast on Saturday night.

Starting as substitutes, both Fyfe and a fellow retiring champion David Swallow came into the game midway through the final term of the thrilling elimination final with the game in the balance.

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But it was Swallow who had the fairytale moment, winning the game for the visitors with a set shot that put the Suns one-point clear with nine seconds remaining.

Fyfe admitted he was numb after the loss, but content that he’d given his all to the club.

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“To have it snatched away like that, it’s yet another example of what footy can do to you,” Fyfe said.

“I just think that’s fitting – the game does not give up its rewards very easily and there’s a lot more times you finish a season heartbroken than the opposite.

“He’s (Swallow) been an amazing warrior for them and we started our journey together playing state 18s footy and an important moment for him and their footy club.”

The 33-year-old conceded he almost didn’t get up for the sudden death final after rolling his ankle at training on Tuesday. It was one of myriad injuries the decorated Docker has suffered throughout his career.

He admitted he thought it was over multiple times this season before coming back to play his part late in the season.

“When I injured myself before coming on the ground… I did the hamstring down at Peel, had a knee injury in the pre-season, rolled my ankle on Tuesday and hardly got up for this game,” he said. “The game tried many different times to tell me the end of the road was near and so I walk away knowing this was definitely the right time.”

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But Fyfe was hopeful about the future for Fremantle, which had one of the youngest and least experienced lists this season.

“If you look at the profile of what we’ve been able to do over the last two seasons – the consistency of our performances – we’ve only lost 3 games of the last 13 or 14,“ he said. ”We’ve learned to win on the road, we’ve given ourselves every chance of evolving the way you’d like a list to. I think we genuinely have got the calibre of players in the right profile to have five or six bites at winning a premiership. And from the West Coast it is increasingly difficult because of the travel but hopefully there’s some hope we can take away from what we’ve done the last two seasons.”

Fyfe admitted he was unsure what was next for him outside of a period of rest.