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Which Club has been more Successful in the AFL era Geelong or Hawthorn?

Who's been more Successful in the AFL era


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strand_victor

Debutant
Feb 2, 2025
108
167
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Hawthorn have more Flags but Geelong lead Head to Head and have a superior Win Percentage, more Grand Final appearances, more Preliminary Final appearances, more All Australians, more Top 2 and Top 4 finishes on the Ladder. Who's been more Successful in the AFL era?
 
Hawthorn have more Flags but Geelong lead Head to Head and have a superior Win Percentage, more Grand Final appearances, more Preliminary Final appearances, more All Australians, more Top 2 and Top 4 finishes on the Ladder. Who's been more Successful in the AFL era?

It’s the Hawks. They’ve won an extra flag.
 
I suppose it's up to supporters of the other 16 clubs to decide. Hawks have been very cyclical whereas for 20+ years Geelong have consistently been a top 4 side with very occasional 'dips' to 5-8th and a rare missing of the 8.

Does being that good impact hunger/desire in the finals? Who knows. But with their continued top 4 strike rate they should regain the equal most AFL flags title and probably exceed it by weight of numbers.

Hopefully this current Hawks crop can nab a flag in the next 4-5 years though
 
Hawthorn have more Flags but Geelong lead Head to Head and have a superior Win Percentage, more Grand Final appearances, more Preliminary Final appearances, more All Australians, more Top 2 and Top 4 finishes on the Ladder. Who's been more Successful in the AFL era?
Coming from a club who's motto is "we exist to win premierships" I think the answer would be obvious.
 
I love to dig the boots in, It's Hawthorn

Extra flag=more success

If it was the other way, Im sure I would make some strawman argument to cover the fact and start talking about financials, club support or anything else which helped my cause

Bottom line, once the league gets professional, you count those flags because that's ultimately why you do it. It doesnt erase teams like Essendon and Collingwood who had won flags in the Era that Hating Nazi's was acceptable (I think that was like pre 2012 to be honest looking at Twitter today) I hate Geelong but hands down they are one of the best to do it as well. Hats off to them.
 
Ultimately our game measures premierships and little else.

Of course as a supporter it's great to see your club play finals often, but the actual answer to the question in our game is the club with more flags in that time.

Lots of other sports globally celebrate or recognise success in more than just the championship, but the AFL doesn't really. Even the minor premier each year seems to get almost no credit or respect unless they go onto win the flag they are long forgotten.
 
The cyclical ups and downs of Hawthorn vs the sustained high finishes of Geelong show different approaches to getting to the same goal of winning a flag. Geelong have gone for continually challenging and having lots of chances to contend for the flag where dropping back or retooling may have helped push them over the edge quicker or more often in that 2012-22 period. Hawthorn have been a bit more boom or bust and have scrapped the list and rebuilt a couple of times. Both have been very successful using very different methods
 
Honestly couldn't be fussed. Doubt you'd find a fan of either club disappointed, and there's two very distinct paths taken to achieve success.
 

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Hmm that sounds a bit like a cop out. It’s just like saying “well at least we game it a good old fashioned try”

Or it’s just a guy who isn’t going to pull his fingernails out because his team is 1 title behind another team across a 34 year period, with one of those titles coming in the very first year of that sequence, and he just means what he says: that he’s pretty satisfied.

After all, it is, you know, guys kicking a ball.
 
Or it’s just a guy who isn’t going to pull his fingernails out because his team is 1 title behind another team across a 34 year period, with one of those titles coming in the very first year of that sequence, and he just means what he says: that he’s pretty satisfied.

After all, it is, you know, guys kicking a ball.
Hello Phatboy. I'm leaning towards cop out. 👍
 
If you're not first, you're last. Like a lot of stuff that applies really poorly in real life, it's 100% accurate in sport.
 
If you're not first, you're last. Like a lot of stuff that applies really poorly in real life, it's 100% accurate in sport.
season by season yes but when one team has 5 flags and another has 4 (as opposed to 0) then it doesn't really apply.
 

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Which Club has been more Successful in the AFL era Geelong or Hawthorn?

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