Magic lost the preliminary final on Sunday 2-1 to a Lambton Jaffas side featuring several former Broadmeadow stalwarts, including three who parted ways after last year as Zane opted for youth.

The finals exit came after Broadmeadow finished the regular season just a point off premiers Maitland in second, a round of 32 appearance in the Australia Cup, where they lost 2-1 to Bentleigh Greens, and the NPL club championship. All that came after Magic lost about half of their players from last year's senior squads.

Zane lamented the lost opportunities at top-grade silverware but he was excited about the squad's growth.

"We were pretty disappointed but that disappointment didn't last as long as it normally does because we've overachieved and, at the end of the day, we were 90 minutes from a grand final," Zane said.

"And it pains me to think about the 96th minute goal against Maitland [in a 3-2 round 18 loss], because we won four of our last five. That's probably the difference between a premiership.

"But how our season went, it was probably a year ahead of schedule."

Zane also paid tribute to his only veteran, Chris Berlin, who is retiring. Berlin, 41, who came on late against Jaffas, is a junior coach at the club and played to give Zane experience and depth.

"He got on and he also scored his last goal in Magic colours this year, so he just said thank you," Zane said. "He could have played somewhere else but he wanted to come back here."

"And we were really short of experience. To keep turning up and do what he's done this year was great."

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