IN A GAME decided by one point, chances were like gold, but the Magpies couldn't their opportunities in Sunday's SANFL Grand Final.

While Sturt got off to a flying start, the Magpies built some momentum from the second quarter.

The Magpies staged a comeback to level the score in the fourth quarter, with Brendon Ah Chee lighting up Port's attack.

Sturt was able to consistently arrest Port's momentum, and prevailed in the dying moments of the game.

"We tried to get the game back on our terms we gained momentum, but couldn’t quite get on with it,” said Port's SANFL Manager Shane Grimm.

“Full credit to Sturt they really closed the game up and made it hard for us to get our game running which slowed us up a little bit.

“We spent a lot of time talking about momentum, we kicked those last three goals in a row to get us level, but it didn’t look like we had it other than that.

“We had some shots at goal which we missed we probably weren’t rewarded for the effort that we were actually bringing.

"It’s something we need to work on, we needed to kick those goals when we had the opportunity."

Devastated by such a close loss, Grimm drew positives from the game and the season.  

“It's hurt our players, it’s obvious how much the Magpies means to our club - it’s important to our players.

"Hopefully they can come back bigger and better and go forward from next year onwards.

“We have a very young side that played today, it gets lost sometimes when we talk about AFL-listed players, but they are still learning.

"We think we have a lot of very good players, the future does look very good.

“The AFL team made finals, we made a Grand Final - both [were lost by] very close margins - but we are doing something right."