Great grand final matchups we were robbed of

[TubbsFarquhar]

Port vs Crows in '02, the closest there's been to a Showdown GF despite both losing the prelims comfortably.

 

[HairyO]

Then the umps pulled our pants down in 13 &15 to gift you guys the flag

Ross was bad umpiring and a god awful low scoring snorefest gameplan away from 3-peating.

 

[Catsnlakers]

I reckon we’ve done 1990 onwards to death, be interested to hear from some of the veterans re who would have been a good match up from 1970-89.

I’ve got one from 1962, my pop always goes on about this one.....Said it should of been an Essendon Vs Geelong GF...They finished 1st & 2nd in the H&A that year, so the first prelim between the Cats & Blues was a draw, & in the replayed prelim the next week the Blues won by 5 points, but right at the end of that match Doug Wade took a mark right in front to put Geelong in front but the umpire paid a Free against, he reckons it was soft as, & having see the vision I tend to agree....The GF turned out to be a fizzer with the Dons winning easily he said. Going by him Geelong in ‘62 was better than the next season (when we won the flag) partly because we had players win both the Brownlow & Coleman that year (Wade & Lord).

 

[Freomaniac]

Ross was bad umpiring and a god awful low scoring snorefest gameplan away from 3-peating.

It helps when freo has a limited forward line in that 2012-15 period with Pavlich, Mayne, Ballantyne and walters. While Hawks in that period had Roughy, Buddy, Hale, Gunston, Cyril Rioli, Puopolo, Bruest etc

 

[Arkangel]

I don't have a hard on for this one either.

We were great in 2007 but limped into the finals without Kerr and Judd on one leg. Cousins pinged a hammy in the QF and all 3 sat out the semi after we lost to Port.

Parallel universe with a fit WC vs fit Geelong sure, but if we had got through the QF,had the extra week off then won through the GF Geelong would've been heavy favourites.

Mid-way through the season I remember seeing the Dogs play Geelong and WC in consecutive weeks at the Docklands. Geelong thumped us by about 12 goals in the first game, but right from the first bounce we never looked switched on. Next week, our players looked well and truly up for the fight from the get-go… and WC won by 14 goals.

Had both those teams made it through to the GF, fit, it would've been an awesome spectacle.

 

[Mr north man]

1996 would have been a walkover for North. I know Ess played a great prelim but they would have gone into the G.F. without Lloyd, Bewick, Wanganeen and there were another couple who got injured in that game. North played Ess.in the reserves G.F. in '96 and won by 104 points iirc.

Let’s remember had we kicked straight in the 1994 preliminary final against Geelong and hadn’t had bad umpires that gave Geelong charity free kicks which was 34 to 12 in their favour we would have possibly beaten the Eagles the following week.
Then when Carey went down in Round 1 in 1997 I believe cost us the flag that year and kicking 2 goals 9 points in the 2nd quarter in the 1998 Grand Final when we should have been 10 goals in front not 4 goals at half time cost us the flag that year.
Plus if we had a Top notch Midfielder in a Buckley stopped us I dare say as well.
So if things had gone right we could won the 1994,97 and 98 Premierships with wins in 1996 and 1999 which would be 5 premierships in 6 years but hay it didn’t.

 

[2006_Eagles]

Richmond v Collingwood '19 would have been an all time great

 

[turtles]

2009 Crows vs Stkilda

 

[Fire]

1998: North v Bulldogs - Clearly the two best H&A teams; played the Game of the Year in Round 22; Dogs spent the entire season either 1 or 2 on the ladder

I was there for that game, as a kid. Got out of school early so Dad could drives us the 3 hours into Melbourne on a Friday night and IIRC it was to determine the minor premiership. Memory to last a lifetime.

Really wish thats how it would have turned out. North lost the 98 premiership, the crows didn't win it. Dogs would have been a much more deserving premier to kick a billion behinds against imo.

 

[demondavey]

2009 Crows vs Stkilda

Doubt it would have mattered. Geelong were flogging whoever won that game.

 

[Monkey King]

West Coast vs Geelong 1993
West Coast vs Carlton 1995
West Coast vs Collingwood 2011
West Coast vs Hawthorn 2012

Would be WCE vs Carlton in 1994 for me. Carlton top of the ladder heading in the last round and lost vs the Dons. Must've brought back memories from the previous GF coz the Blues just imploded from there, bumped out of the finals series in straight sets.

 

[demondavey]

West Coast vs Geelong 1993
West Coast vs Carlton 1995
West Coast vs Collingwood 2011
West Coast vs Hawthorn 2012

Is this an attempt at sarcasm?

 

[kriles76]

You could only beat us without Chapman and Enright. Freo were cooked by grand final day.

Out of all the preliminary finals and Grand Finals between 2012-2015 you lost the free kick count only once.
Amazing stuff from a side that played on the edge.
How much did you pay the umpires?

According to AFL Tables:

2012 - Frees 24 vs. 21
2013 - Frees 19 vs. 19
2014 - Frees 17 vs. 21
2015 - Frees 18 vs. 19

Solid evidence there. Don't know how we ever got into those GF's without the heavily slanted free kick counts our way.

 

[demondavey]

Would be WCE vs Carlton in 1994 for me. Carlton top of the ladder heading in the last round and lost vs the Dons. Must've brought back memories from the previous GF coz the Blues just imploded from there, bumped out of the finals series in straight sets.

Do you think you had North’s measure that year? I feel North v WC would have been a huge spectacle. Or even Carlton v North in 1994 if you say Carlton were as good as they were? Very hard to discount WC that year though.

 

[demondavey]

Richmond v Collingwood '19 would have been an all time great

Richmond would have won by 10 goals.

 

[demondavey]

2016 - Sydney v GWS. That would have been an absolute ripper.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Adelaide vs Carlton 1993

 

[davos44]

Port vs Crows in '02, the closest there's been to a Showdown GF despite both losing the prelims comfortably.

Its amazing that in 25+ years only the Port and Crows have met once and West Coast and Freo have never met in a final.

Both in finals:
01/02/03/05/07/17
03/06/12/15

Sydney and GWS have met 3 times in 10 years!

The first derby/showdown Grand Final would be amazing but extremely stressful. Probably for the best it hasnt happened.

 

[btdg]

Would be WCE vs Carlton in 1994 for me. Carlton top of the ladder heading in the last round and lost vs the Dons. Must've brought back memories from the previous GF coz the Blues just imploded from there, bumped out of the finals series in straight sets.

Carlton had an inexplicable loss of form at the end of the year: we beat West Coast by 10 goals in round 22 to take top spot, then pasted 9th placed (LOL) Richmond by 119 points in round 23.

And then... just ran into a brick wall. The team from round 24 onwards was arguably stronger too - Silvagni returned from injury and we picked up a few others, but nope: lost to Essendon (to lose top spot), then lost to Melbourne who had finished 7th in the regular season, then lost to Geelong who had a bunch of injuries pre-game.

1994 Carlton vs West Coast is clearly one that stands out to me.

To be honest, though: the 90s was rife with bizarre finals series. The old McIntyre finals systems really were flawed in their ability to get the 'right' teams through from 6 or 8 teams:

1999 Essendon vs North would have been incredible, even if it was more fun the way it panned out in real life. But Carlton finished 6th and LOST in the first week of finals... had no business being alive in week 2, let along in the grand final

1998 North vs Bulldogs (with Chris Grant et al). I reckon people forget that like Carlton in 99, Adelaide finished 5th and LOST their first final

1988 Hawthorn vs Carlton. Would have been a 3rd straight year, and Carlton would have put up more fight than a Melbourne team who finished 5th and got on a bit of a roll...

2013 Hawthorn vs Geelong: Freo won the right to be in the GF by beating Geelong at Kardinia Park, and well done to them. But the Hawthorn vs Geelong PF was an absolute cracker and as a GF it would have been nuts

2015 Freo vs West Coast: I give this one to Freo back the other way. Again, Hawthorn won the right to be in hte GF by beating Freo in Perth, but geez this would have been huge (and Western Australians would probably still be whinging about it being in Melbourne today)

 

[timokane]

This post should have been more like which teams that have been robbed of a premiership.
Collingwood will head the list easy. Robbed of a heap of flags.

 

[Barry_Badrinath]

2019 Richmond vs Pies would’ve been massive. Not for the game but for the matchup and hype. The Pies were far from the best team. They finished 4th and bowed out to the team that finished 6th. But with the Pies pulling off the upset the year before the build up would’ve been enormous, and for a Tiger supporter unbearable. I very much doubt that the result would’ve changed though. Richmond by plenty, although probably closer than 89 points.

2018 Richmond vs West Coast. It’s a shame these two teams never met in a final over the past 5 years. We still got an excellent grand final in it’s place though.

2015 Freo vs West Coast. A derby grand final would be amazing but Freo we’re cooked by the end of the year. If rounds 1-8 Freo showed up it could’ve been a great game.

I’m not sure why people are mentioning 2010 Cats vs Pies. We saw that game the week before and it was a fizzer.

And a bit like 2015, it’s a shame West Coast broke down and fizzled out in 2007. They started the season on fire but by the end they stood no chance with their injuries. They would’ve still lost but a fit West Cost would’ve been a better match up.

 

[Breretonisahood]

I reckon we’ve done 1990 onwards to death, be interested to hear from some of the veterans re who would have been a good match up from 1970-89. I know Fitzroy has been mentioned in 83. Big ones for me;

WC v North - 94
St Kilda v WB - 97
North v Ess - 99
Hawthorn v Geelong - 11,13
WC v Fremantle - 15
GWS v Sydney - 16

I really would have enjoyed a Sydney derby in 2016 and a Perth GF in 2015.

Maybe Ron The Bear would have some stats on 1970? Onwards? You seem to have lots of interesting pieces of information.

Also, what hasn’t been mentioned is a Hawthorn v North GF in either of 14 or 15. I think on both occasions North won from the EF through to the PF. Would have been a nice throwback to the seventies and North would have probably been better than Sydney and West Coast.

1974 Richmond v Hawthorn. Richmond easily beat North in the GF which was 4 zip for the season. Hawks beat Richmond twice that year but lost the PF to North by 5 pts (our 3rd straight loss to North). We matched up well against Richmond and would have challenged them more than North did.

 

[RichLeMonde]

And all their dreams were foiled by this man.

View attachment 1229880

Nah mate Stewey Dew played a bit later

 

[Gordon Farkas]

Nah mate Stewey Dew played a bit later

In my humble opinion, Darren Jarman's achievements eclipse those of Stewey Dew in all the most important metrics:

1. Finals impact during his career; and
2. Pie-eating impact post-career

 

[kane249]

I don't agree with 2018 Richmond v West Coast. Richmond easily and it would've gotten ugly in danger of beating 119.

So Richmond would have thumped West Coast, but West Coast beat Collingwood, who thumped Richmond the week before.
West Coast also thumped Richmond in their only meeting in 2018

How does that work?