Civil Service Panel Placing Disappointment

A few months back I got the results of a competition I had applied for. To my disappointment, I was placed right in the middle of the list of candidates. I expect this panel will last the guts of two years and if I remain on it, I will eventually get a place but it could take a long time.

Normally, I would be delighted with the result but I feel massively disappointed. I have been in the civil service five years and people have been telling me from day one that I would be a great fit for this role. I have academic qualifications which are relevant and a year ago, I moved into a role with a lot of similarities, taking a de facto pay cut, as I thought the experience would stand to me in interview. I also undertook an internal training course which is made for this new role and got excellent results. I suppose I foolishly counted my chickens and saw myself placing much higher up the panel and being guaranteed a spot. Part of me thinks I fell victim to management games as well, as a competition would be required to replace me in my current job if I moved to the new one. It seems like there are only ran every 2-3 years and they want to get their value out of me before letting me go. However, I could have just given a very average interview!

Does anyone have any advice about how to get over the disappointment? It is still niggling at me months later. I'm working as best I can but I'm now considering whether I even want to ever go this new role, if/when I got offered a place from the panel. It's just turned me right off it. I'm considering whether to apply for a role in an area I would never have previously considered that was recently advertised. I feel like I was so focused on this one job, I ignored other areas I might have enjoyed. However, I have heard anecdotally that if I apply for this new position while still on the panel, it could be held against me if I ever went in there.