Which grand final do you rate as the best of this millennium so far?

[VineyToClark]

With all the talk of how good the last grand final was with some even saying it was the best ever, I thought it'd be interesting to see how we rate the grand finals of this current millennium.

Which grand final do you rate as the best and why?

 

[Macpotata]

2018
2012
2009

 

[Chubberson]

2008 No one gave us a hope in hell.

 

[Gavin Excell]

2013

Thrill a minute celebration of our game

 

[Coaster2012]

2018 will always be my favorite.

 

[hawkman]

Easy to spot the Richmond supporters voting

 

[Carl Spackler]

Too much choice. 08, 13, 14, 15... I don't know.

 

[Virgin Dog]

Nice, another online poll getting ruined by biased Richmond fans. Nothing about the 2017 grand final was entertaining, there was little competition. The two grand finals before and after were both substantially better, and even then neither of those were probably even the best one

 

[Boxhead_31]

The 2011 GF was some of the best, tightest, skilled footy played till one team was able to get ahead in the final quarter.

 

[Stabby McGee]

2007... that was the way to win one

 

[Dirty Bird]

Have and will always say that the first 3 quarters of the 2011 grand final is the best football I’ve ever seen and will always vote it #1 in any best of base off that alone.

Too bad Collingwood couldn’t keep it up.
If I had to ignore that, I’d probably go 2012 (havnt seen 2001, 13, 14, 15 or 18 - was young, in Sydney and didn’t care about 01 and worked through the other 4 - did see the final quarter or so of 18 on my bosses phone, but I can’t judge the game off that)

 

[Ok Boomer]

2002 was really good even though it was somewhat of a case of Collingwood dragging Brisbane down to their level with the aid of miserable Melbourne weather.

2009, 11, 12 and 2018 are great. 2008 had a good story.

2005, 2010, 2016 were a bit dour. 2005 was so different to anything before though or since really.

 

[StillAtLarge]

The 2011 GF was some of the best, tightest, skilled footy played till one team was able to get ahead in the final quarter.

2004 had a similar theme. Both are underrated due to the final margin

 

[Sttew]

2009 - two of the best H&A teams on record were always destined to play off in the GF, and we weren't disappointed. A toe-poke was ultimately the difference between the two teams

 

[Dazzler9]

I feel like 2012 gets under-rated a bit. There was some epic ebb and flow.

IIRC, Sydney were on the ropes and saved by the bell at the end of the first quarter. Somehow managed to find themselves 29 points up before Hawthorn surged and looked like they had the cup in their keeping halfway through the last. Then Sydney came again to take the lead before Hawthorn peppered away late but couldn't find the big sticks. Then Malceski's sealer with 30 seconds left.

EDIT: and don't forget the 'real Grand Final sprint' between Jetta and Rioli down the wing in the 1st (?) quarter!

What a game!

I still voted for 2018 though

 

[Dazzler9]

The 2011 GF was some of the best, tightest, skilled footy played till one team was able to get ahead in the final quarter.

2004 had a similar theme. Both are underrated due to the final margin

For mine, the game must be in the balance late into the 4th quarter for it to be considered one of the great GFs. Just my opinion.

 

[Power Raid]

2018 was pretty impressive

The eagles seemingly didn't turn up, fluke a back heel goal to give an ounce of hope..............and the rest is history

 

[Dazzler9]

An overlooked point so far - The OP deserves credit for not including 2000 as part of the third millennium. Solid mathematics

 

[zucchini]

What's a millennium?

 

[Dazzler9]

What's a millennium?

It's a type of falcon.

 

[zucchini]

It's a type of falcon.

A bird?

 

[Dazzler9]

A bird?

A plane

 

[Lsta062]

I’ll choose one, but 2012, 2008, and 2018 were my favourites. They were not overly low scoring, were of a decent quality at worst and had an interesting storyline to them.

In 2008 the young Hawthorn took on the beast that was Geelong, who went the entire season only losing one game. Hawthorn put in place a clever strategy of rushing behinds (which was considered OK to do at the time) and were able to dismantle them.

In 2012 Sydney were the underdogs and held off the underperforming Hawks as 2008 was the only thing they had to show for how good they were since then. It was the start of Hawthorn’s dominance, but Sydney still did a superb job knocking them off.

2018’s Grand Final was interesting. Both teams had a close encounter in Perth for the QF before facing off in the Grand Final. Initially it was a disaster for West Coast as Collingwood were all over them. It looked like the game was heading the way Adelaide vs Richmond did the year before. However, West Coast have been extremely resilient throughout the entire year and held no fear playing away, so they backed their system, ground down their deficit and then kicked the sealer with less than 2 minutes remaining. Was extremely entertaining and thrilling.

An honourable mention to the Sydney vs West Coast face-off In 2005-2006, Collingwood vs Geelong in 2011 and Western Bulldogs’ 2016 win since it had the best storyline out of all the Grand Final wins I have seen.

My final decision is the 2018 Grand Final. The fine line between vindication (West Coast winning) and despair (Collingwood winning) for Richmond fans made it such an entertaining spectacle.

 

[hawkman]

2006 always seems to get underrated in these polls, probably because it gets lumped in with 2005 which was a dour game of footy

2010 always seems to be overrated. As a contest it was similar to 2005 just with a draw as the end result

 

[Leon]

2000 - With due respect to Essendon who were the best side that year by light years, a very, very boring GF.

2001 - Enjoyed this one. Brisbane going in as underdogs, neck and neck right throughout and then Brissy run away with it in the last to start their dynasty.

2002 - Very good game, tight, tense, great efforts on both sides, also the first close Grand Final in years. Epic last quarter.

2003 - Boring. Brisbane were brilliant, Pies had a shocker, over in the 1st quarter. Brisbane being awesome was the only highlight.

2004 - As mentioned by others, underrated due to Port running away with it. Was close and tight throughout. I liked it. Was amazing seeing the seemingly invincible Brisbane team get over run, and good to see Port win after several near misses.

2005 - Was riveting due to the closeness but quality of football was pretty bad. Leo Barry’s mark was all time though.

2006 - Much better quality football than 2005, one of the greats.

2007 - Fairly tedious but watching that great Geelong side at their awesome best was pretty special.

2008 - Really liked this one. I tipped Geelong but remembering how Hawthotn and Buddy were on fire in their finals series I thought they might just be able to knock them off and so they did.

2009 - Brilliant game, one of the greats. Never knew who was going to win until Max Rooke took that mark. The best of Geelong’s 3 flags for mine.

2010 draw - Unbelievable spectacle. Goddard’s mark, Maxwell’s goal line save, Hayes’s goal, that last bounce / just pure drama.

2010 replay - Fairly boring. You could tell early on that Collingwood were switched on, Saints we’re drained and we weren’t going to get another close one.

2011 - Great game, was unfortunate as a spectacle that the Pies ran out of gas but for three quarters it was an epic contest.

2012 - Brilliant game and I also have never so heavily backed a Grand Final side as I did the Hawks that day, I was 100% certain they’d win. Buddy’s 3rd quarter was scarily good but Swans were fantastic right throughout.

2013 - Have seen this game get panned as a contest but I didn’t mind it. Was a let down that Freo were poor early on and couldn’t kick straight - would have made it better, but when they came back and it was tight and tense in the second half I thought it was a good game.

2014 - Aside front Hawthorn’s brilliance, this was a shocker. I expected another great contest but half way through the 1st quarter you knew Hawks were going to smash them.

2015 - One of the most disappointing Grand Finals in memory. Expected much more from West Coast and they were awful. Hawks did it easy.

2016 - For obvious reasons I love this game to pieces but objectively speaking it was a great game, very hard and unrelenting.

2017 - Not one of the greats, Richmond were excellent and it was great to see them win, expected more front Adelaide though and they were awful.

2018 - Arguably the best of all time. Was worried early that the Eagles were going to do another 2015 but right throughout they just kept hanging in there. Pies didn’t do too much wrong - played a great game, just pipped at the post. I was neutral in this game but relieved at the end that the Eagles won purely for Jack Darling - if the Pies had won after he’d dropped that mark, well...Jesus.


Top 5 (excluding 2016 for me)

2010 draw
2018
2012
2009
2002