Steve Deane: Gut-wrenching loss accepted gracefully. Weird

Gary Wilkinson (right) and Kirk Penney walk off the court after their opponents squared the best-of-three ANBL grand final series. Photo / Getty Images

What is it about hoop sports that confers an ability on its participants to take defeat so well?

Sure, there are obvious exceptions, such as when Perth stormed out of the North Shore Events Centre after losing game three of their semifinals series to the Breakers without attending the press conference. But typically, those whose prime sporting objective is to lob a ball through a steel rim with a net draped around it take defeat with the utmost grace.

If it was just a case of netballers grinning through the tears when things go pear-shaped we could perhaps put it down to women possessing a better sense of perspective. It's not like there's often a sheep station on the line, after all.

But last night, the Breakers lost in the cruellest, most gut-wrenching fashion. Ron Dorsey's miracle shot on the buzzer was a proverbial kick in the goolies for a team that moments earlier had fully expected to be celebrating a worthy title after 33 games and seven months of toil. To describe their fate, they used words like "good" and "fun" in the same sentence. Weird.

Having been at last year's Four Nations final when the Kiwis did a similar thing to Australia in rugby league, I can confirm that Darren Lockyer and Tim Sheens certainly didn't take much joy from the moment.

Perhaps the Breakers' sunny outlook is because they know they still have another chance - a chance they should, and by all accounts probably will, take.

That said, there's no doubt this business of winning an Aussie title is proving to be a touch trickier than the game one walloping of the Taipans might have suggested.

Certainly the Breakers won't want to leave any scrap of hope for Dorsey's hot hand to convert into the grim reality of defeat when the title goes down to the wire on Friday.

The one consolation they'll take into the game is that they're unlikely to play as badly as they did for most of last night's game. And really, what do they have to worry about? At the end of the day, it's all just good, clean fun.