Which Grand Final or Big Final was the '' one that got away '' For your Team?

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09 prelim. Probably would've got smacked by the Cats a week later anyway.

*21 GF. Nice lead with a bit of momentum half way through the 3rd then it completely went to s**t. Still hurts but would've hurt more if it was a real flag.
2009 I believe if you beat The Saints you would have given it a red hot crack but still come up short. Not humiliated though. The conditions would have tightened it up significantly. Granted you did get touched up in the first game and the scoreline flattered you in the Qualifier. But you did only just lose by a point I think it was in match 1 home and away where Johnson hit the post at the end to win it. And you did beat them on a Friday night late on in the year.

I reckon The Cats by under a kick. Maybe like, 4 points. You guys were a good team. That Prelim was one of my all time favourite games. You shoulda had them.
 

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How about the 2022 EF? Can't believe you've already forgotten it. Lynch had a chance to seal the game but completely shanked what should have been a textbook goal for a key forward, and then 5 Tiger defenders stood around idly as Joe Daniher kicked the winning goal.
That kick went through the goals as a few photos showed when taken from directly behind without parallax error, what a shame the AFL still insists on using a Kodak box brownie tied to the goal post to adjudge close decisions, as for the 5 defenders they were afraid of catching a dose of doofus from Daniher and rightly so.
 
Not trying to be a dog but in 92 when you missed out we beat you then West Coast did. You missed out by percentage.

Missed the final 6 with 14 wins!

With 2 rounds to go we were only one win behind eventual grand finalists Geelong and West Coast after we thrashed 2nd placed Footscray by 80 points.

Beating West Coast in Perth in the final round was always going to be tough so we had to beat you guys at Waverley Park in a 50/50 game the previous week that turned out to be a hard fought and close game.
 
09 prelim. Probably would've got smacked by the Cats a week later anyway.

*21 GF. Nice lead with a bit of momentum half way through the 3rd then it completely went to s**t. Still hurts but would've hurt more if it was a real flag.

I remember that half time score of that 2021 AFL grand final. Dogs lead 7.5.47 to demons 5.9.39.

I actually thought to my self... Hold on, This is like the 2016 grand final again. Because the half time score was swans 7.3.45 to dogs 7.1.43.

I thought both times dogs kicked 7 goals at half time and were accurate and didnt waste many shots.


I seriously thought after half time in the 2021 AFL grand final was Dogs and demons would kick 3 goals each. Then dogs would kick another 3 or 4 goals in the final quarter. Score 13 or 14 goals to win the 2021 flag and win by 20-30 points.
 
1970. I'm told it's one if the finest Collingwood sides ever assembled, had pace, class, height, guts, the lot.

We beat Carlton by an average of 40+ points over 3 games that season, then in the first quarter Tuddy (our most important player and spiritual leader) and McKenna (centurion FF who kicked 6+ vs Carlton every game that season) clashed heads in the goal square.

We still creamed them for a half. It took a superb game from Jezza and Tiger Croswell on "greyhound pills", plus 4 goals off the bench from Hopkins to beat us.

Carlton celebrate it as well they should, huge win against the odds. Sad and sore loss for us.
 
1977 PF. North thrashed us in the worst finals performance I’ve ever seen from a Hawks side. Reigning premier, minor premier and beaten North 2 weeks previous. That year Hudson kicked 110, Lethal 91 and Hendrie 52 yet we only kicked 5 goals in the PF. I still have nightmares about this loss.
 
2007 QF away to Port. Went down by 3 points. Cousins putting in a BOG performance then rips his hammy in the 3rd.

If we'd hung on we'd have had a week off and then a home PF against a mediocre North.

Still probably would've got pumped by the Cats in the GF.
 

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1970. I'm told it's one if the finest Collingwood sides ever assembled, had pace, class, height, guts, the lot.

We beat Carlton by an average of 40+ points over 3 games that season, then in the first quarter Tuddy (our most important player and spiritual leader) and McKenna (centurion FF who kicked 6+ vs Carlton every game that season) clashed heads in the goal square.

We still creamed them for a half. It took a superb game from Jezza and Tiger Croswell on "greyhound pills", plus 4 goals off the bench from Hopkins to beat us.

Carlton celebrate it as well they should, huge win against the odds. Sad and sore loss for us.
1970 was the first one I thought of too.

A very classy side that won its first 8 games, had a wobble mid-season, and then won its last 8 games plus the Second Semi heading into the Grand Final.

We had Carlton's measure in the first 3 meetings and were headed that way again in the Grand Final with a 44 point half time lead (despite the head clash between Tuddy and McKenna). Carlton's second half comeback is legendary - great win for them but definitely "one that got away" for us.
 
2005, Injuries at the worst time of year. Some bizarre selections too.
 
1916 for Carlton - finished top then lost the GF to bottom placed Fitzroy
 
Clearly 2018 for us. Finished games clear at the top, had some sort of record winning run at the MCG, and arguably was the best of our seasons during the flag run.

No interstate side would've touched Richmond at the MCG in a final in that era, but the Pies were amazing on PF day and it needed another MCG team to knock us off which they did.

4 in a row would have been nice.
 
Some newbies will say 2012, but the Swans were the better team...Sydney would have been utterly justified in writing here about 2012 if Malceski missed and the Hawks got to the other end in time...

But in 1984, the Hawks pretty much had the Bombers on toast for the first half, and held them to a four goal buffer coming into the last. Hawthorn's deers in the headlights complacency was as much to blame as Sheedy's innovation...

And a real chin scratcher - 2001 when the Lions first won. In those years, they were a team the Hawks matched up well on, despite a loss that year that was fairly emphatic. But the Hawks by September were putting out the best footy that group ever managed, and if they'd taken Essendon I'd imagine they wouldn't have done what the Bombers did in the GF - ran out of petrol after half time in a match no one with credibility would have tipped the Lions to win after that break...it could have been a surprise flag like the Dogs in 2016, with the Hawks back on the bottom the next year...!
 
Clearly 2018 for us. Finished games clear at the top, had some sort of record winning run at the MCG, and arguably was the best of our seasons during the flag run.

No interstate side would've touched Richmond at the MCG in a final in that era, but the Pies were amazing on PF day and it needed another MCG team to knock us off which they did.

4 in a row would have been nice.
Flu went through your club, several of your boys barely able to play. Jack Riewoldt was on one leg and played one of the great games, 5 goals from no chances. Absolute soldier.
 
Flu went through your club, several of your boys barely able to play. Jack Riewoldt was on one leg and played one of the great games, 5 goals from no chances. Absolute soldier.
Yes Riewoldt had a huge year that season, one of his best and was great in that PF. From memory Dusty was severely hampered with a corky too, but that aside the Pies were brilliant, completely shell shocked us and we never recovered in the game.
 
2011. How did we not go back to back with a 20-2 regular season record, 6 All Australians and a Brownlow Medallist is beyond me to this day.

In the last game of the 2011 AFL Season we got thumped by Geelong despite finishing minor premiers. The previous year's wooden spooners West Coast started strongly in the First Qualifying Final but thankfully we won by 20. The prelim was one of the great games. Hawthorn were up by 3 goals at one stage then Luke Ball came to save us.
 

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