Great Grand Finals?

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Roobs321

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Lol wut? You were super heavy favorites and most expected you to touch up the Eagles like you did. One of the more forgettable GFs of the last 20 years with Darling's squib the main highlight.
A lot of rewriting of history on this page (implied Collingwood as 2007's 2nd best team, Cousins in the 2006 GF), and this poster probably forgets the drubbing the Eagles gave Hawthorn in the Qualifying Final, 50pts up and game over at 3/4 time. "Super heavy favorites" is ridiculous, although most would agree that it was the most forgettable Grand Final since 1999.
 

Roobs321

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2012 was the best I've seen in the 25 years or so I've been watching.

I think 09 was second due to the physical slog it was...although because I'm cats I may be biased

After that 05 and 06 then 2010.

Of the non close grand finals I still think 1997 was engrossing
Basically my thoughts as well. 05/06 and 2010 Draw are already vintage thrillers, but 2012 and 2009 are the most precious. 2002 was decent but mostly as refreshing antidote to 10-15 years of mostly blowouts.
 

Roobs321

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I watched this game just recently. Hawthorn shot away from Geelong early and Geelong played catch up all day. Greatest GF ever...NO Fcuken way. Far from it. Geelong's defence that day was non existant. Tim Darcy and Michael Shultze were very average campaigners. and they were Geelong's Key backmen. Brereton was not hit hard enough by Yeates ..he should have jumped on him and whacked him again. He then went down to the forward pocket and played on another ordinary campaigner in Steve Hocking who should have hit him the same way he hit Lethal in 1985. Instead he stood there and let DM take a relatively uncontested mark. Sure it was a high scoring game and Geelong got within a kick but truly NEVER looked like winning the game. For Hawthorn supporters this one would be right up there but Geelong to me that day were poor and had virtually no Defence to speak of. Hocking was our best mid fielder and he was the player opposition sides targeted early. He never was as good in the big games was our Buddah. You can go on but best recent GF was 2011...Geelong "we know how to play the game never rang truer"! 1989 Forget it!!!!!
Agreed, from a Geelong perspective, 1992 despite the larger final margin is certainly the one that got away. That said, 1989 has a hell of a lot going for it from a neutral perspective.
 

JCHolmes

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'Pretty quiet' you say? He was in and around everything in that final term. Gut running to the extreme. Throwing himself at everything.

Using his lower than usual stat count on the day (which for an Eagles fan you obviously don't recall too vividly) as evidence to completely disregard the validity of one's views on a forum of opinion - that, that is what's nonsensical here.
Can certainly agree with this, kicked his two goals in the first half then went quiet possession wise. But his last 5-6 mins of that GF he was indeed everywhere, putting pressure on mainly through the middle. Having watched the last minute a million times, he put the last pressure act on in the game, having run 100 metres to get there after winning the original clearance anyway.
 

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http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...9-grand-final-had-it-all-20151001-gjz0wc.html

Best grand finals, No.1: Tough, tight, terrific, the 1989 grand final had it all


  • Rohan Connolly
    Just where do you start with the 1989 grand final? So much incident. So many stories. So hectic and high scoring. Such a dramatic finish. As the curtain closed on the VFL era of football, it certainly did so in style.

Greatest Grand Finals - 1989

Brereton's KO, Ablett's nine goals, the Hawks hanging on desperately for the win - was this the greatest grand final of all time?

Hawthorn were the old pros, playing in their seventh successive grand final and aiming for back-to-back premierships for the first time in the club's history. Geelong were the precocious up-and-comers, sweeping their way through September with the freakish Gary Ablett on fire. It was a great script. And it delivered.

From the very first bounce, in fact, when in the one passage of play, Ablett got the Cats off to the perfect start as, simultaneously, Hawk heartbeat Dermott Brereton hit the deck, lined up and shirtfronted by Geelong's Mark Yeates in retribution for an incident earlier that season.

  • terms and conditions and privacy policy .

    That became an ongoing narrative for this epic grand final. Champion Hawthorn rover John Platten was knocked out. Hawthorn strongman Robert DiPierdomenico beat off three Geelong opponents, Neville Bruns, Andrew Bews and Garry Hocking, as all tried to take him down.
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    Premiership coach Allan Jeans holds up the cup. Photo: Ray Kennedy
    Then, camped under a ball waiting to mark, "Dipper" was smashed by a charging Ablett. More broken ribs. And a slowly deflating lung that would see the Brownlow medallist rushed to hospital before he'd even had time to accept his premiership medal.

    But among the carnage, Hawthorn played some sensational football as the Cats became too caught up in the physical battle. The Hawks slammed on eight goals in that frantic opening term to open up a 40-point lead by quarter-time
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    Dermott Brereton kicks for goal. Photo: Getty Images
    Geelong, though, had Ablett. He'd already kicked 18 goals in the Cats' previous three finals. This would be his masterpiece. In the second quarter alone, he marked one handed and threaded a checkside goal from the boundary line. Then, soaring above a pack at a ball-in, he snatched the ball and in one movement snapped another unbelievable major.

    It was still 36 points the difference at the final change despite Ablett's six goals. But a brutal game had left too many Hawks barely standing, skipper Michael Tuck and Gary Ayres two more casualties, Hawthorn with no fit interchange players left.
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    Chris Langford celebrates, while Gary Ablett laments Geelong's defeat. Photo: Supplied
    Geelong would give it one last shot. After trading more goals, Ablett's eighth goal, a superb left-foot snap after fending off Chris Langford, then a snap from Shane Hamilton, got the margin back to just 11 points. Again the Hawks replied through Dean Anderson.

    Still the Cats kept coming. There were four minutes left when Ablett marked and converted, incredibly, his ninth goal in a Norm Smith Medal-winning performance.
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    With just 59 seconds left and 12 points the difference, Geelong's David Cameron marked 45 metres out. His goal was the 42nd of this amazing game. The ball returned to the middle with 29 seconds left on the clock.

    Out on their feet, the Hawks forced a ball-up, DiPierdomenico, somehow still breathing, forcing a second. And as a score of weary bodies picked themselves up from that stoppage, the siren rang.

    History for Hawthorn. And for Ablett, whose nine goals equalled a grand final record set by Gordon Coventry in 1928. It was the second-highest aggregate score for a grand final. And one of the most brutal. It had everything. Hence its permanent place in the hearts and memories of the football world.

    Geelong coach Malcolm Blight would sum it up nicely in The Final Story.

    "That fact that the '89 grand final is held in such esteem by most people that love the game of football … it was a joy to be involved, for all the good and bad of it. It's just that every time we talk about it now, we still can't win the bloody thing."
BS
WRONG!


Greatest goal in grand final history and goal of the threepeat era!
Better known for the ones he missed.
 

Tarkyn_24

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But the 2014 Swans were the best assembled team of all time. ;)

I don't think 2007 was any better than 1988. Two champion teams demolished mediocre opposition.

Particularly the 2008 Power (13th); and to a lesser extent the 1989 Demons (4th) couldn't fight back to that same level reached the previous year after those demolitions.

Alternatively, Hawthorn's demolition of a fledgling Essendon in 1983 is considerable in comparison to 1988/2007, given that Essendon were good enough to return the favour with interest in the following two years. It still hurts to this day but 1984 was a cracking game.

I've been to the last 20 GF and taking the Hawthorn glasses off, the best GFs in that time were 98, 02, 05, 06, 08, 09, 10, 12, 13 and 16.

I enjoyed 01, 05, 07, 08 and 16 mainly due to clubs winning for the first time of breaking significant premiership droughts. I particularly enjoyed 2008, 2014 and 1986 because they fell on my birthday.
2011 was a better grand final than all of them except 2002 in my view.

Phenomenal game of football and no one in the competition bar maybe Hawthorn would've come within ten goals of either side that day
 

Footy_Fan2007

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Actually I'd suggest the 2007 grand final was the worst grand final in AFL history

Congratulations Catters!!

2013 was a fantastic match it had everything you could ever want, including a gracious winning team.
2013 was absolutely horrific from a neutral perspective. Freo had 1 goal on the board in a half of football. That goal you mentioned was proberbly the only highlight.
 

Footy_Fan2007

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I reckon he'd be implying the team you couldn't shake the week before but I'd go one step further and say West Coast too.
I think the ladder at the end of the home and away season is a pretty good reflection on who the top teams are. Collingwood were ordinary throughout the year (finished 6th I think?) beat an injuried eagles team in extra time and only got so close in the prelim because it was on their home ground with 60k of their fans. That doesn't make them the 2nd best team of the year.
 

Tarkyn_24

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I think the ladder at the end of the home and away season is a pretty good reflection on who the top teams are. Collingwood were ordinary throughout the year (finished 6th I think?) beat an injuried eagles team in extra time and only got so close in the prelim because it was on their home ground with 60k of their fans. That doesn't make them the 2nd best team of the year.
Collingwood was one of the most inconsistent teams that year but our best football was as good as any, as we proved through that finals series.

Average losing margin against the Cats that year of eleven points, and if not for losses to cellar dwellers Richmond and Melbourne would've been sitting around Port (who admittedly nabbed us by four goals in our only meeting months before) and West Coast anyway.
 

Xtreme

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It's true, 2013 was a horrible spectacle. I didn't buy the dvd that year
I have the original version with radio commentaries
The Victory Pack release (QF/PF/GF)
The Victory Pack collectors tin edition (GF + 2 regular season games)
25 years of grand finals dvd set
Hawthorn grand finals dvd collection
Ultimate Hawthorn box set (contains the 13/14/15 victory packs + extra bonus matches)

:D
 
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