- Apr 6, 2010
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08 Cats best football side I've ever seen
Won diddly squat but the best side I've seen, was a matter of how much not if we'd win
Opinion Best and worst memory/game in your GFC supporting history
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Won diddly squat but the best side I've seen, was a matter of how much not if we'd win
I was there for that 2004 game. I think I wiped it from my memory bank… Carlton were just so bad at the time.
From memory, the only bright spot that day - so we thought - was the debut of Tenace!
I just looked up that game, turns out we had 11 future premiership players there. Could not have told me that afterwards…
2011 was the best side we have ever had.
Our spine was a bit weak in 2008. Lonergan at full foward because hawkins wasnt ready after we lost ablett the year before. And a first year taylor as the centre half back who was also a bit green after we lost Egan.
- Apr 6, 2010
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Respectfully disagree
08 Cats up there with 00 Bombers
It's hard to compare different seasons but those two sides never looked like losing
Harley KO at half time was probably the main reason we lost in 08 but I digress
Harley was there as well as Scarlett. Harry was basically the choccies on the pillow - and if he started getting beaten (which didn't happen in the GF, if ever), then Harley was the switch-up option.
I do get your point about Lonergan, but in fairness, he was playing just as well as Nathan as the second banana in that forward line. He did kick 36 goals in 16 games, that's not nothing (for the record, the year before, Nathan kicked 34 from 21).
But look at their record as a team - it was flat out incredible. Not just the fact that they only lost one game for the year up till that point, but the absolute smashings they dealt out on a weekly basis. Insane.
Ironically, that was the GF when Harry did get beaten (and the Lonergan switch basically saved the game).
But one side has the greatest player of the modern era, if not all time, and the other one doesn't. Also Scarlett was the best FB in the league in 2008; by 2011, his powers were definitely on the wane. Chappy, Corey and Ottens also weren't as great as they once were, and Hawkins 2011 wasn't as good as Mooney in 2008... barring the last 45 minutes.
The main reason we lost in 2008 sat in the opposition coaches' box. That, and a few seriously bad shots at goal.
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We were 6s and 7s at the back once Harley went off
No coincidence Dew popped up and we were crashing into each other
- Dec 19, 2015
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The stats may work against me but I was less confident going into the 2008 Grand Final than I was 2007. Something about how we were playing was just off at times. I know it was only one game we lost and we can say it was an aberration but an 86 point loss shouldn't happen to good teams. I didn't like Lonergan playing and Wojo not.
There were other games we looked iffy even though we won.
I thought some of the best football we played was half way through 2010. Think we played Essendon midyear and we barely made a mistake all game, it was just beautiful to watch. After that game I remember thinking, we will win it this year, it's the best we've ever looked. Pretty sure we lost the next week and never looked like being able to compete with the saints and pies for the rest of the year.
It didn't help, sure, but I'd suggest that 62 i50s are almost always enough to win a game.
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Completely agree about 2008. No doubt we were the best side that year. But that 1 h&a loss against the pies wasn't just a loss, it was a complete blowout. I remember thinking at the time, premiership sides don't get smashed like we got smashed that night.
Anyway, everyone knows that the 2008 GF was the worst game in Geelong history. May I suggest a couple of other very ordinary, disappointing, terrible games that I've had the displeasure to witness in-person:
Round 1 1994 vs Melbourne: Fresh off 1993's massive disappointment, we decide to get absolutely smashed by a pretty ordinary Melbourne side who kick goals like they're half-price.
1993 vs StKilda at Waverley: Apparently we were 1992's runners-up... so of course we get taken apart by Gordon Fode (!!!) at my very first ever game of live footy.
Richmond, 2000: We're sitting second on the ladder after about a month and a half, Richmond is a dead-ordinary side... so of course they take us apart by 12 goals.
Carlton, 2004: Enough said.
Sydney Prelim, 2016: I honestly don't think we rue this game enough for what it actually was, to be honest - because the first quarter was such a blowout. 40 points down by quarter time, with a very ordinary Grand Finalist waiting next Saturday. I'm pretty sure that 72 inside-50s is the biggest ever count for a losing side.
Round 1 1994 vs Melbourne: Fresh off 1993's massive disappointment, we decide to get absolutely smashed by a pretty ordinary Melbourne side who kick goals like they're half-price.
1993 vs StKilda at Waverley: Apparently we were 1992's runners-up... so of course we get taken apart by Gordon Fode (!!!) at my very first ever game of live footy.
Richmond, 2000: We're sitting second on the ladder after about a month and a half, Richmond is a dead-ordinary side... so of course they take us apart by 12 goals.
Carlton, 2004: Enough said.
Sydney Prelim, 2016: I honestly don't think we rue this game enough for what it actually was, to be honest - because the first quarter was such a blowout. 40 points down by quarter time, with a very ordinary Grand Finalist waiting next Saturday. I'm pretty sure that 72 inside-50s is the biggest ever count for a losing side.
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I agree, and that 2011 team had something the 08 team didn't, a hard edged, disciplined core group of players who had the ability to grit their teeth and grind out a win when the flow of the game was against them.
The 08 team was a brilliant front running team, but I'm not sure they ever really had that ability to knuckle down and take back the lost momentum in a game (probably mostly due to not ever having to, since they had teams beaten before the game started..).
Carlton 1995 sure did, and at roughly the same time.
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I will limit my answers to games I actually attended:
Worst - nick Davis game. Hands down the most deflating experience I have ever had at a sporting event.
Best - 2011 GF. Such a high quality game, and we simply broke their will at the start of the last qtr. it was beautiful to watch the feral Pies fans skulk home with 10 minutes to go in the last qtr.
Closely followed by 1992 in Perth vs Geelong. Gaz snr’s 150th and he putted on a masterful display. I remember getting very sunburnt at Subi that day but not caring 1 bit.
Worst - nick Davis game. Hands down the most deflating experience I have ever had at a sporting event.
Best - 2011 GF. Such a high quality game, and we simply broke their will at the start of the last qtr. it was beautiful to watch the feral Pies fans skulk home with 10 minutes to go in the last qtr.
Closely followed by 1992 in Perth vs Geelong. Gaz snr’s 150th and he putted on a masterful display. I remember getting very sunburnt at Subi that day but not caring 1 bit.
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BEST (not a GF)-1994 Prelim. Amazing.
WORST (Not a GF)-The 1997 Semi against the Crows. Screwed over by the umps and draw but we all knew that would be us done for a while. The era was over.
WORST (Not a GF)-The 1997 Semi against the Crows. Screwed over by the umps and draw but we all knew that would be us done for a while. The era was over.
Geelong won their first 15 games in 2011. And then recorded some of the greatest smashings in the second half of the season with the third biggest being a 100 point win against the reigning premier. We only lost games after top 2 was already a foregone conclusion.
Geelongs 2008 home and away win loss result was impressive but looking deeper the home and away performance really wasnt any better then 2011. nearly lost to a poor freemantle, lost to the pies by 86 points in 2008 and had a couple of other games where we just snuck home. Percentage is a good indicator of how well a team is going and the 2008 and 2011 teams percentage was very similar. 157 vs 161.
But the 2011 side was running much better into finals. In 2008 we didnt look right against the dogs in the prelim and obviously not the granny either. We had become too handball happy where the 2011 side was much more direct.
- Apr 6, 2010
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When we put teams away in 08 it was with the most ease I've seen since Bombers 2000
Yes we know it fell apart but at our best we looked invincible
Carlton 95 was pretty strong all over the park as well
- Sep 26, 2011
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I wouldn't say this was the "best" but it's in the collection of moments I loved and will never forget. First game I took my fiance too, sitting only a couple rows from the boundary, the roar of the MCG that night (and the emotion) absolutely amazing moment.
For those who want to enjoy the tongue-in--cheek version:
Pleased that he later joined us and definitely contributed to another flag.
Percentage in 2011 didn't tell the whole story, though. Going into Round 19, we had a healthy but not unremarkable percentage of 138. Then we faced two of the most appalling AFL sides in history at home in back to back weeks - Melbourne, then Gold Coast - and on the other end of that fortnight, our percentage was 160.
I was at that 1980 game. Dad took my brother and me down from Ballarat. It was wet and freezing and we were doing the 40 hour famine that weekend, so while everyone else was into the pies and sausage rolls to keep warm, it was "Dad, can we have another barley sugar?" Despite my protestations as a Cats supporter (especially as my brother is a NM supporter) we were so saturated by 3/4 time that we left, stripped off down to our jocks in the car and tried to dry out on the way back to Ballarat. (Thank God for Volvo heaters. Those Swedes really know how to distribute heat in a car.)
Nan and Pop took me to that one, aged 8!
One of the great finals runs - two wins by a kick after the siren, and the Carlton win with no Couch, Hocking or Bairstow IIRC. Aaron Lord had a day out.
As I write, we're still trying to get out of the carpark. Bit difficult as they've now torn down the grandstand, and both Nan and Pop have died. Anyone want to purchase a VP Commodore that's a little over its recommended service interval? Mulgrave, serious buyers only.
Agree with most. Others not mentiond are -
Worst -
Worst -
- vs Eagles at home in 2006. 54 points up and they came back and won it. Was the final nail in the coffin for the 2006 season.
- the rarely mentioned 1990 opening round, loss to Hawthron by 115 points. Set the tone for a bad season.
- 1994 semi-final vs Carlton. Totally against all odds. Three keys players missing but we got over the line.
- vs Eagles (then top of the ladder) at home in 2007. Broke the curse from twelve months before and started our momentum towards the finals.
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