Toughest AFL GF

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Apr 3, 2016
5,381
10,937
AFL Club
Sydney
1945 bloodbath.

carltons fred fitzgibbon got 4 matches for attempted striking, which considering the match isnt all that surprising. until you realise he got 4 weeks for striking against collingwood in the prelim. decided to jump the fence to get involved in a melee and was escorted off the ground by police.

one bloke got reported for attempting to strike the goal umpire in last quarter.

if they had tv and more than one umpire everyone would have been rubbed out.
 
The OP should rename the thread title. 'Toughest' implies a close, hard fought contest, like 2009. But he is talking about a bloodbath?

If you base it on the post game casualty list then has to be 1989. I read somewhere that as many as a dozen players could not have fronted the following week if it had been a draw. Despite the ferocity and aggression on the field it was a very high scoring game
 

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Oct 2, 2008
8,897
18,482
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
Brothers of Destruction
2020 was pretty tough.

Two teams displaced from their homes and their families. Living interstate in camps essentially for 110 days.


Within the first 5 minutes, one player torn his calf and played out the game. Another was concussed and stretchered out and a third player took injections into his shoulder on numerous occasions, playing through the discomfort and pain in his last ever game.

Then later on, another player was wheeled off the group when his teammate leaped to mark a football, resulting in friendly fire that let him helpless on the ground.

One team was trailing by 20 points at half time, only to turn the result around and make it a 5 goal win.

Certainly 'tough'.
 
2014 grand final

The defending champions going into the grand final as the underdog. Media and neutral supporters on the Sydney Swans bandwagon. The focus being on Buddy and his "superstar" teammates about to embark on premiership glory.

Nobody expected to see the Hawthorn unit that turned up, tough as nails, executed their game plan with perfection AND ultimately stopped the Swans from executing theirs.

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The best game in the history of the AFL happened on grand final day 2014.
 
Sep 27, 2008
135,186
155,481
AFL Club
St Kilda
Other Teams
Chelsea, Black Caps, Subiaco
The 2009 GF is the toughest AFL GF I've seen, it was like a heavyweight bout that went for the full 12 rounds and went right down to the wire.

2020 was pretty tough.

Two teams displaced from their homes and their families. Living interstate in camps essentially for 110 days.


Within the first 5 minutes, one player torn his calf and played out the game. Another was concussed and stretchered out and a third player took injections into his shoulder on numerous occasions, playing through the discomfort and pain in his last ever game.

Then later on, another player was wheeled off the group when his teammate leaped to mark a football, resulting in friendly fire that let him helpless on the ground.

One team was trailing by 20 points at half time, only to turn the result around and make it a 5 goal win.

Certainly 'tough'.

The 16 min quarters count against last year's GF as being one of the toughest AFL GFs as it lacked the war of attrition you get with full length quarters.
 
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