Geelong's top-two chances have all but been shot after a shock 18-point loss to St Kilda at Marvel Stadium, with coach Chris Scott ruing the "missed opportunity".
The Cats have been in impressive form over the past three weeks to eye off a home qualifying final but the Saints were keen to spoil the party.
Now, Scott and his men will need to turn their attention to West Coast to secure a double chance of fear dropping into the elimination final realm.
"Oh, they're not morons and the missed opportunity bit - clearly we're disappointed. We knew what was at stake," Scott said post-game.
"So the question now is, how much do you dwell on that missed opportunity, as opposed to how much you focus on the opportunity that's in front of us? And that's very clear too now.
"So look, we know what we have to do.
"Everyone's had their moments in terms of missed opportunity. I don't know of a team in the comp that hasn't been ruing certain sections of the season.
"As much as anything, the challenge seems to be not allowing that to snowball. So that's what we'll be focusing on."
Scott was adamant that the club will need to move on from the disappointing performance, ensuring it doesn't carry over into Round 24 and the ensuing September action.
"We have a choice," Scott said.
"We can sort of accept that this is a huge blow to us, or we can move forward really quickly and reinforce what we can do, which I think is our likely course of action.
"Not many teams have a chance to be sitting here with one game to go in the season thinking 'if we win that, we're gonna finish top four'."
The two-time premiership coach also noted the wretched run at Marvel Stadium, admitting the Saints were "specialists" at the venue.
It was the first clash of 2024 for Geelong under the roof, who have become accustomed to playing in the wintry conditions for the better part of the campaign.
St Kilda have generally had the better over the Cats in the past and Saturday was no different.
"When we were able to go forward in that third quarter, in particular, they just kept marking it. So that bit's a bit out of character for us," Scott said.
"And there were some other bits that were a bit out of character. But a lot of it was them being on fire and us not being able to quell it."
Scott also confirmed that veteran forward Tom Hawkins won't be getting a farewell game at GMHBA Stadium next week but could be in the mix for finals as he returns from his ankle injury.
