Steven May tees off on Collingwood during brutally honest speech ...

Melbourne AFL premiership defender Steven May says it hurt to watch Collingwood win this year’s flag because his side is “so much better” and “should have smoked them”.

The Dees star was being interviewed on stage after finishing fifth in Melbourne’s best and fairest count on Friday night when he threw shade in the direction of their qualifying final rivals.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Steven May’s honest assessment of rival club during best and fairest speech.

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The 2021 premiers bombed out of the finals in straight sets for a second consecutive season by losing to eventual premiers Collingwood in the qualifying final, before going down to Carlton in a semi-final thriller.

Melbourne dominated their first final with the Pies, winning the inside 50s count by a staggering 32, and the contested possession by 14, but still managed to lose the game by seven points.

After admitting to “tipping a few more back than I probably should have”, May was asked about his hunger to get back to the top of the mountain.

Steven May tees off on Collingwood during Melbourne best and fairest speech. Credit: X

“I’ve had a few fans come up to me and say, ‘I really appreciate and respect how much you hate losing’, which is awesome, and I do,” he said.

“And I don’t want to talk about them in hindsight. But you know, we lose to Collingwood, and they go on to win the flag, and it f****** hurts watching that because we’re a better team than them, we should have smoked them.

“And to sit there on grand final day and watch them hoist the cup, and get the medals, I’m sitting there going, ‘Jeez, our team’s so much better than these guys’. We should’ve been out there, but we weren’t.

“We’ve got an unbelievable list, we’ve got an unbelievable coaching group, and the hunger has never been, you know, hungrier. I’m blessed to be a part of this team and (I’m) looking forward to next year.”

The Dees — who beat Collingwood by four points in their King’s Birthday clash — had 23 shots on goal to 15 in the qualifying final, had more disposals, more clearances and more marks inside 50, yet still inexplicably lost.

Max Gawn of Melbourne (centre) leads teammates from the field following their qualifying final loss to Collingwood. Credit: Joel Carrett/AAP

And it was a similar story the next week too, as the Dees torched an advantage of 26 shots on goal to Carlton’s 18 to lose by two points.

Despite the team’s failure during September, May said he was “extremely proud” to finish so high in the count.

“I’ve come to a team that’s loaded with superstars,” he said on Friday night.

“You come to these sort of nights and you don’t expect to be sitting up here because you’ve got the likes of our midfield, who are all superstar players, and I’m happy to just run out with them on a Saturday night or Friday night.

“So, for my name to be called out, I wasn’t on the leaderboard all night, so I wasn’t really picturing this.

“But it is a bit of a ‘pinch yourself’ moment to be named in the top five along (with) some of these superstars in our team.”

Christian Petracca won his second Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott Trophy as the Dees’ best and fairest, while former captain Jack Viney finished second and May’s defensive partner, Jake Lever, rounded out the top three.

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