What makes a great game of football

Spazz Cat

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A remember a late 90's/ early 2000's v North game where we kept coming back from about 5 goals down. Both teams would've kicked 20+ goals. Was one of the best wins I've seen us have.
Also remember a North Hawks final that went to extra time and Carey kept running back into the packs to win it. Was awesome.
 
It was a great game but there have been others that were its equal and in some ways surpassed.

geelong vs collingwood 2011. Both teams go in undefeated. Both clearly the best teams in the land. The game is a thriller decided by less then a goal.

geelong vs hawthorn 2009. The view pre game is Hawthorn must win to keep its back to back aspirations alive. Hawthorn come all guns blazing. Geelong struggles to stay in it to half time. Geelong lose two players before half time and are down on the bench. Hawthorn creep out to 28 point lead early in the last as geelong then turn it on and win after a kick after the siren. Massive rub down from mackie on fraknlin in the last couple of minutes as franklin is about to seal the game.

geelong vs hawthorn 2012. Big scoring game. Geelong get big lead. Massive hawthorn comback. Hawthorn get 2 goals ahead late in the last. Some huge tackles deep in the hawthorn goal square before geelomg run it up the other end for hawkins to kick a goal to seal the win after the siren from 60 metres.

north vs essendon game in the late nineties with massive lead and then the great comeback.

merger game between hawthorn and melbourne 1996. Teams were looking like merging and by coincident played off against each other in the last game of the season and possibly the last of the clubs. Hawthorn also need to win to make finals. Hawthorn won by a point.

various swans vs eagles games in the mid 2000s.

Loved that 2012 Cats vs Hawks game and the atmosphere

I was sitting beside some other Cats fans and the row behind was a small group of Hawks fans. After the first quarter the Hawks fans decided the best way to enjoy the night was with a few extra drinks, until Hawthorn got back into the match - friendly banter all night between us, even up to the final siren & Hawkins goal

At the end of the match it was acknowledgement for the game we just watch and best of luck for the rest of season

Not sure if I've just got lucky when sitting near opposition fans, but other then the 11 grand final where the Collingwood "fan" (corporate guy in a suit who was more interested in the free beer & food, and missed most of the 3rd qtr) who was a bit over the top & obnoxious, I haven't personally encountered issues with opposition fans at games, especially those tight games where they become really tense towards the end
 
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A remember a late 90's/ early 2000's v North game where we kept coming back from about 5 goals down. Both teams would've kicked 20+ goals. Was one of the best wins I've seen us have.
Also remember a North Hawks final that went to extra time and Carey kept running back into the packs to win it. Was awesome.
Round 1 1999. Geelong were an ordinary side, well i thought, while north was favourite for the flag. We won 141 to 135 after, as you say, being down by 40 points at half time and 29 points at 3 qtr time. Mensch and carey kicked 4 goals each. We won the first 5 games in a row that season to be top of the ladder. I then got incredibly drunk woke up 6 months later and still to this day have no idea what happened. did our captain make a quick recovery from his knee injury and lead us to premiership glory?
 

Spazz Cat

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Round 1 1999. Geelong were an ordinary side, well i thought, while north was favourite for the flag. We won 141 to 135 after, as you say, being down by 40 points at half time and 29 points at 3 qtr time. Mensch and carey kicked 4 goals each. We won the first 5 games in a row that season to be top of the ladder. I then got incredibly drunk woke up 6 months later and still to this day have no idea what happened. did our captain make a quick recovery from his knee injury and lead us to premiership glory?
Yeah, it was a great start. Buddha looked like he was a certainty for the Brownlow.
Lynch was gonna be a star. Colbert was gonna come back.
Something went wrong
That game was great cause it wasn't a gradual comeback. We'd get in front then they'd pile on six in a row. Then we'd come back
 
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Yeah, it was a great start. Buddha looked like he was a certainty for the Brownlow.
Lynch was gonna be a star. Colbert was gonna come back.
Something went wrong
And glenn kilpatrick for a brief period used to stream out of the centre like he was an amalgamation of chris judd and mark bairstow.

jason mooney pre injury was playing like the player who would later be called cam mooney.
 

Spazz Cat

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And glenn kilpatrick for a brief period used to stream out of the centre like he was an amalgamation of chris judd and mark bairstow.

jason mooney pre injury was playing like the player who would later be called cam mooney.
Haha yeah. And a young Darren Milburn was racking up possies in the middle like Tom Mitchell
 
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Round 1 1999. Geelong were an ordinary side, well i thought, while north was favourite for the flag. We won 141 to 135 after, as you say, being down by 40 points at half time and 29 points at 3 qtr time. Mensch and carey kicked 4 goals each. We won the first 5 games in a row that season to be top of the ladder. I then got incredibly drunk woke up 6 months later and still to this day have no idea what happened. did our captain make a quick recovery from his knee injury and lead us to premiership glory?

That's actually another type of game that is always enjoyable - when you're behind for most of it, but still playing well. And you feel like the team is still "in" the game. You can have games where you're 2-3 goals down but you know you're not closing the gap, and ones like this where you can be 5-6 goals down but still see they're going ok. Strange phenomenon.

The 1992 Qualifying Final against Footscray is another one like this. From memory we were 6 goals down halfway through the second quarter. Won by ten goals in the end.
 

ATSAM

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That's actually another type of game that is always enjoyable - when you're behind for most of it, but still playing well. And you feel like the team is still "in" the game. You can have games where you're 2-3 goals down but you know you're not closing the gap, and ones like this where you can be 5-6 goals down but still see they're going ok. Strange phenomenon.

The 1992 Qualifying Final against Footscray is another one like this. From memory we were 6 goals down halfway through the second quarter. Won by ten goals in the end.
Any game in which we defeat Footscray is a good game. Particularly in finals.
 
Round 1 1999. Geelong were an ordinary side, well i thought, while north was favourite for the flag. We won 141 to 135 after, as you say, being down by 40 points at half time and 29 points at 3 qtr time. Mensch and carey kicked 4 goals each. We won the first 5 games in a row that season to be top of the ladder. I then got incredibly drunk woke up 6 months later and still to this day have no idea what happened. did our captain make a quick recovery from his knee injury and lead us to premiership glory?

Gary Ayres happened. I remember in the return encounter against North, despite Bluey McGrath having a relatively good record on Carey, for some weird reason we played a barely mobile Stoneham on him, and Carey proceeded to kick a lazy 9 goals and was basically the difference between the two sides, despite McGrath also playing in that match.
 
So what I am reading here are the best matches are the ones that have the best stories, especially underdog stores. The stories of daring and courage, of comeback wins against the odds against teams for which their should be no right of comeback, of big starts given and heroics bettering more talented teams. Sometimes just failing but where the loser was gallant in defeat.
 

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That's actually another type of game that is always enjoyable - when you're behind for most of it, but still playing well. And you feel like the team is still "in" the game. You can have games where you're 2-3 goals down but you know you're not closing the gap, and ones like this where you can be 5-6 goals down but still see they're going ok. Strange phenomenon.

The 1992 Qualifying Final against Footscray is another one like this. From memory we were 6 goals down halfway through the second quarter. Won by ten goals in the end.

That first half was a basketball game.
11.2 to 5.4 at one stage. I think 14.4 to 11.6 at half time but feeling was we would roll over them.
Funnily enough, Dogs were desperate for a crack at the Eagles but couldn’t get past us.
 
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I can recall watching it on replay once - no doubt a great game when watching it live, but knowing the result and being on the wrong end makes it hard to want to watch

I will give credit to Saints members at the game though - that match was before I had as membership & I simply bought a ticket to attend the match, somehow ending up in the middle of the Saints members area on the wing. They're was 2 of us in Cats colours in that particular bay (not together) and even after the final siren there was no nastiness, arrogance or rudeness from them towards us - kinda a respect for what we had all just witnessed and the idea that we may well meet again in September

oddly I feel geelong fans have a greater respect and remembrance of that match than st kilda fans do, simply because we look at that match and think of the final outcome of the grand final, and so do they.

I feel they would feel more sad watching that game than geelong fans do thinking why didn’t we do this in the grand final? It would bring back regret and what if’s instead of celebrations
 
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oddly I feel geelong fans have a greater respect and remembrance of that match than st kilda fans do, simply because we look at that match and think of the final outcome of the grand final, and so do they.

I feel they would feel more sad watching that game than geelong fans do thinking why didn’t we do this in the grand final? It would bring back regret and what if’s instead of celebrations
Do what? The game was evenly split despite it being played in their home fortress Which suited their game plan to a tee. Geelong was always the better side and that game showed it. if both teams played the way they did at the mcg we would of won comfortably. They got lucky again that it pissed down on grand final day helping their game plan once again. Well atleast until 3qtr time.
Last qtr suited Our fast handball and run more.
 
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Do what? The game was evenly split despite it being played in their home fortress Which suited their game plan to a tee. Geelong was always the better side and that game showed it. if both teams played the way they did at the mcg we would of won comfortably. They got lucky again that it pissed down on grand final day helping their game plan once again. Well atleast until 3qtr time.
Last qtr suited Our fast handball and run more.

It's always intrigued me the knots some fans have tied themselves in trying to pretend Geelong were somehow lucky in the Grand Final. St.Kilda didn't kick a goal in the last quarter (much like Collingwood two years later). If you do that you aren't unlucky.
 
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Do what? The game was evenly split despite it being played in their home fortress Which suited their game plan to a tee. Geelong was always the better side and that game showed it. if both teams played the way they did at the mcg we would of won comfortably. They got lucky again that it pissed down on grand final day helping their game plan once again. Well atleast until 3qtr time.
Last qtr suited Our fast handball and run more.

I think your vastly underrating that st kilda side. They didn’t go 20-2 in the home away season without being champions. Very few teams have accomplished that for a reason. It’s incredibly difficult to win that often.

I think they feel if things went their way the first 3 quarters and took their chances they would have been further in front. I recall the episode of on the couch after the grand final and all mike Sheehan and the panel did was talk about how st kilda had enough chances I front of goal to win the game and blew it.
St kilda fans say the same thing.

I’d say the opposite of anything suited our handball game, I’d say our handball game plan almost cost us the flag in 09 like it cost us in 08 and some individual brilliance in the last quarter got us over the line. Our game plan was terrible and outdated and bit us on the ass big time in 2010
 
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It's always intrigued me the knots some fans have tied themselves in trying to pretend Geelong were somehow lucky in the Grand Final. St.Kilda didn't kick a goal in the last quarter (much like Collingwood two years later). If you do that you aren't unlucky.

i don’t think we were lucky, any side that claws back to win a grand final trailing at 3qtr time is not lucky, but gutsy. I think there was a stat at the time that we are one of the only sides ever to do that. Far from lucky.

when two sides who are that talented play in a grand final, the one who loses is always going to feel aggrieved. Either side would have been worthy of it.
 

Spazz Cat

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I think your vastly underrating that st kilda side. They didn’t go 20-2 in the home away season without being champions. Very few teams have accomplished that for a reason. It’s incredibly difficult to win that often.

I think they feel if things went their way the first 3 quarters and took their chances they would have been further in front. I recall the episode of on the couch after the grand final and all mike Sheehan and the panel did was talk about how st kilda had enough chances I front of goal to win the game and blew it.
St kilda fans say the same thing.

I’d say the opposite of anything suited our handball game, I’d say our handball game plan almost cost us the flag in 09 like it cost us in 08 and some individual brilliance in the last quarter got us over the line. Our game plan was terrible and outdated and bit us on the ass big time in 2010
Got us to 3 Grand Finals in a row.
Wasn't terrible.
Some might say that is good even.
 

Spazz Cat

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i don’t think we were lucky, any side that claws back to win a grand final trailing at 3qtr time is not lucky, but gutsy. I think there was a stat at the time that we are one of the only sides ever to do that. Far from lucky.

when two sides who are that talented play in a grand final, the one who loses is always going to feel aggrieved. Either side would have been worthy of it.
Thought Saints were lucky. Good teams hold up under pressure and kick straight.
They didn't look like kicking a goal at all till they got a weird free against Scarlett. Then got a bullshit double goal. And it rained too.
They were too scared/ unable to take the game on in the last qr.
They absolutely deserved to lose.
 
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Got us to 3 Grand Finals in a row.
Wasn't terrible.
Some might say that is good even.

It’s an odd one upon reflection, I almost feel it became a bit of a circumstantial victim of a genius in Clarkson in 2008 as well. The clarkson cluster got the better of us on grand final day. 09 it could have gone either way on the big day depending who you ask, I still feel we were supremely more talented but they had the better game plan. 2010 the game plan came right off the hinges and was just outdated, then got rejuvenated and tinkered with in 11 and we easily won the flag. I feel like what happened in 11 should have happened in 08 and 10 too.

I don’t think there is anything abnoxious saying that geelong team should have won 4-5 flags, we were simply that good a team but blew a few shots.

especially not getting back to back at any point is a damning thing given how good they were at the least.
 
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Thought Saints were lucky. Good teams hold up under pressure and kick straight.
They didn't look like kicking a goal at all till they got a weird free against Scarlett. Then got a bullshit double goal. And it rained too.
They were too scared/ unable to take the game on in the last qr.
They absolutely deserved to lose.

like they said on the couch with mike Sheehan and whoever was on it at the time, all they said was about all the saints missed chances early on, I think a schneider one and a few others?? They went on about it saying they blew it. I wouldn’t say given that was a fair assessment or opinion to have ( not my opinion by the way) that they were lucky. Either team would have held the cup and had legitimate claims to it. Thought that’s what made it such a historical game
 

Spazz Cat

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It’s an odd one upon reflection, I almost feel it became a bit of a circumstantial victim of a genius in Clarkson in 2008 as well. The clarkson cluster got the better of us on grand final day. 09 it could have gone either way on the big day depending who you ask, I still feel we were supremely more talented but they had the better game plan. 2010 the game plan came right off the hinges and was just outdated, then got rejuvenated and tinkered with in 11 and we easily won the flag. I feel like what happened in 11 should have happened in 08 and 10 too.

I don’t think there is anything abnoxious saying that geelong team should have won 4-5 flags, we were simply that good a team but blew a few shots.

especially not getting back to back at any point is a damning thing given how good they were at the least.
This is all just my take. Im hardly an expert.
But Ross Lyon was a brilliant coach. But he never addressed his one major failing.
Not being able to score quickly.
It was brilliant, but couldn't win.
Because it's like being the best boxer in the world but having a glass jaw.
Destined to fail against the best.
Yeah we deserved another one. At least a back to back anyway.
Outplayed and outcoached in 08 unfortunately, didn't go our way in 13.
 
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If Geelong won the flag in 2008, I seriously believe the hunger or desire to make amends would not have been there in 2009. What transpired that day in 2008, it stung the players for the rest of their careers. Not only did they go beyond the limits of what they were physically capable of (old tiring legs), they were driven to win another 2 flags afterwards.
It was the wake up call the whole team needed. Something which happens often in sports.

did Brisbane need a wake up call to win 3 flags in a row?? How about hawthorn with their triple peat?? Richmond have now gone back to back and history will say they are as good a premiership team as ours was... yet we know that simply isn’t true.

if your good enough you don’t need wake up calls, wake up calls are excuses for poor execution or strategy, nothing more.

if we changed the game plan in 2008 and 2009 we should have comfortably won like we did in 2011
 

Spazz Cat

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If Geelong won the flag in 2008, I seriously believe the hunger or desire to make amends would not have been there in 2009. What transpired that day in 2008, it stung the players for the rest of their careers. Not only did they go beyond the limits of what they were physically capable of (old tiring legs), they were driven to win another 2 flags afterwards.
It was the wake up call the whole team needed. Something which happens often in sports.
It does.
 
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This is all just my take. Im hardly an expert.
But Ross Lyon was a brilliant coach. But he never addressed his one major failing.
Not being able to score quickly.
It was brilliant, but couldn't win.
Because it's like being the best boxer in the world but having a glass jaw.
Destined to fail against the best.
Yeah we deserved another one. At least a back to back anyway.
Outplayed and outcoached in 08 unfortunately, didn't go our way in 13.

he definitely was a fantastic coach, we just had a champion team... anyone else I think they would have won. They slipped a bit in 2010.

Strange you say outcoached in 08 but not 10 which was just as bad IMO.

I honestly think that geelong team should have won 5 flags and be sitting as the undisputed no 1... they were that good a side. The fact Richmond have equal flags and so do that hawks shows a huge injustice given the comparative talents
 

Spazz Cat

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he definitely was a fantastic coach, we just had a champion team... anyone else I think they would have won. They slipped a bit in 2010.

Strange you say outcoached in 08 but not 10 which was just as bad IMO.

I honestly think that geelong team should have won 5 flags and be sitting as the undisputed no 1... they were that good a side. The fact Richmond have equal flags and so do that hawks shows a huge injustice given the comparative talents
Thought Saints had a great list. We both started at the same and they were rated higher and with good reason.
Well we were outcoached in 10 I guess. But were outcoched and outplayed by the better teams of that year in the finals. Way it goes.
Different to 08.
If anyone should be whinging its the Saints. Had talent, but got 2 ego maniac coaches in a row and wasted it.
Major failure at board level.
 
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