Steve Johnson couldn't produce his trademark September heroics against Richmond in what turned out to be his last match, but he's content with the way he exited the game.

The GIANTS matched the Tigers and took on the wave of home crowd support in the first half of Saturday's preliminary final, but couldn't sustain its efforts for long enough and eventually went down by 36 points.

So often the man for the occasion in massive games at the MCG as a triple premiership Cat and 2007 Norm Smith medallist, Johnson couldn't repeat his six-goal effort against West Coast and struggled to make an impact in his 293rd appearance.

The 34-year-old failed to hit the scoreboard and made some poor decisions at times, but after battling a lingering knee injury to fight his way back into the team after being dropped for the GIANTS' first final, Johnson wasn't worried about any personal criticism to come his way post-match.

"I was pretty quiet, and you always want to have a bit more of an influence than what I did," he said.

"But on reflection I'm just disappointed we couldn't get the job done as a team. I'm not too worried about my own performance."

There were emotional scenes in the GIANTS rooms after Johnson's final outing, with his wife, children and the rest of his close-knit family on hand to help ease the pain of defeat.

"They give you great support, and I'm pretty fortunate that my family has been to just about every game of footy I've played over my 16 years," he said.

"It's disappointing we're not going on next week but I just have to go and console them and let them console me, because I just love playing footy and this is the end."

GIANTS coach Leon Cameron brushed aside the fact that his side had failed to win through to the last game of the year for the second year running, and Johnson backed Cameron's belief that the club is set up to achieve success in the near future.

"For our boys it's another missed opportunity but if they keep getting back here, they'll give themselves more opportunities, and they'll go on with it," he said.

"I was confident that we could go on and play in a Grand Final, and we took it right up to the Tigers for a half, but at the end of the day you've got to give them credit, they were the best side out there.

"They ran over the top of us in that third quarter and we just couldn't stop them, so they've earned their right to play the Crows.

"They're going to be a hard side to beat next week as are the Crows, so everyone is in for a ripping Grand Final."