Heal bade farewell on Saturday night to the club he served as a player and coach, a bitterly disappointing 88-79 loss to league strugglers Townsville Crocodiles.

The Kings had led by as many as 15 just after half-time, but were mowed down by the Crocodiles, who sent captain Russell Hinder – a former King – out a winner.

It was a microcosm of the Sydney team’s year, a difficult disjointed campaign in which all involved did their best in the face of a changing playing roster and never quite found the cohesion necessary for success.

‘‘Sydney wants winners, needs  winners,’’ Heal said when asked what the Kings must do to regain popularity among the city’s sports fans.

‘‘I think it’s all about stability. Look at Perth, who’ve made the play-offs for 28 straight years because they’ve got stability, a core group.

‘‘New Zealand have dominated through doing the same thing. Hopefully these last couple of years we’ve found players this club can build on.

‘‘I think there’s a foundation there now and I think there’s a core group who can hopefully provide bigger success and hopefully take it to the next stage.’’

Heal said he was disappointed with the way the season ended, effectively the night before with the 13-point loss to Wollongong that ended their play-off hopes and after which Heal announced his exit from the club.

‘‘It won’t change my history with the Kings,’’ he said, but added: ‘‘My expectation this year was that we were going to grow again and we were going to be better this year.

‘‘I expected we could win 15 or 16 games. We were a few games short.

‘‘I’m a competitor. I want to win everything. I certainly don’t leave here feeling I’ve accomplished my job.’’

The stability Heal may prove elusive too. Tom Garlepp and Ben Madgen are inked in but on the other side of the ledger are Sam Young, the NBA import who carried so much expectation; Jesse Sanders,   expended for Young only to answer an S.O.S. call after Charles Carmouche left for family reasons; and star forward AJ Ogilvy.

Of his future, Young said: ‘‘I’m not sure. That’s something that my agent and the owners will have to talk about. But I enjoyed it. I’d never been to Australia before. I feel like I got to see a bit of all the different cities and a little bit that Australia has to offer.’’ And was he happy with his performance in Sydney?

‘‘Yes and no. I feel like in some ways I provided Australia a good demonstration of what I can give. I had some great games and I had some tough games. Overall I played pretty decent. But I would have liked to give this city and this team more success.’’

It was that kind of season.