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

Which grand final was the best?


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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.
LOL.
 
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That actually happened. Do you disagree?
Yeah I do, because their was no strategy to rush behinds. It just happened on the day.

The actual strategy was “kill the shark”, if you remember, so I just have to laugh when the one thing someone posts is “Hawthorn won because their strategy was to rush behinds”.
 

caspian

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Jan 6, 2019
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Obviously '06 and '18 have special memories in particular, but the thing that upon rewatching makes '18 stand out is how much better the skill level was than on most of the other close GFs. Proper elite footy. Like '09 was pretty intense, but basically one big old rolling maul compared to '18.
 
2002 was a better contest than 2018. Recency bias strikes there, although Sheed’s goal was an emphatic finish to the game and is definitely in the conversation for being the most clutch play in AFL Grand Final history.
 
The 2011 GF was some of the best, tightest, skilled footy played till one team was able to get ahead in the final quarter.
This.

I rate it well above 2010 despite the result.

Never seen two sides put together anywhere near as good an exhibition of skillful footy as what was seen that day. Geelong too good.
 
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
I re-watched 2006 a few weeks ago. It’s a meh game of footy. Kerr absolutely lighting it up a couple of times through the midfield and obviously Hunter and Chick’s heroics gave it a bit of life.

Key Swans (Jolly, Hall) played so far beneath themselves it was almost inconceivable that West Coast didn’t win by a lot more.

Save for a few similar fleeting moments in 2010 (Goddard Mark, Milne bounce, Hayes goal, Maxwell smother) you have another example - Pies played well beneath themselves and squandered a ridiculous number of opportunities. The Replay was probably a better reflection of that premiership side’s capabilities and I personally think the better quality game of football. That said St Kilda were putrid that week.
 
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I might need some distance from it to truly appreciate 2018, but it was 4 quarters of completely different football with an absolutely epic finish. That McGovern-Vardy-Ryan-Sheed chain is all time. I've never seen anything like it at that stage of a grand final before, save for Andrew Krakouer's winner in the 2010 WAFL grand final.
I have to say I enjoyed 2011 as much as any of them. I do enjoy contests where the teams go absolutely head to head and then one of them breaks. It probably happened a bit earlier in this game than you would like, but it was an absolute cracker of a match. 2016 had a bit of that as well.
 

dylan93

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Mar 16, 2011
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2001 - 2003 will always go down as some of my favourites. The Lions of the threepeat era were just such a brilliant team.

Next would probably have to be the 2010 Draw, 2016 and then probably like 2009.
 
2002 was a better contest than 2018. Recency bias strikes there, although Sheed’s goal was an emphatic finish to the game and is definitely in the conversation for being the most clutch play in AFL Grand Final history.

Ummm......

or even......



hehehehe



It was a better spectacle than the past few AFLW seasons at least!
 
Ummm......

or even......



hehehehe




It was a better spectacle than the past few AFLW seasons at least!

Lol.

Sheed’s goal has both of them covered comfortably in how clutch the play was. Not even a contest.

Take the rose-tinted glasses off.
 
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