Who is the best team in the history of the game to not win a grand final??

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Geelong of 89 to 95
 
If the criteria is NEVER to have won a GF, then I guess it has to be Freo or GWS who have made GFs ahead of Gold Coast and University.

if you are looking at the best teams in a given year who didn’t win the premiership I think Essendon 1999, Geelong 2008 and Richmond 2018 would be contenders.

if you are looking at the best teams who didn’t win a premiership in an era or 4 or 5 years, I would say St Kilda circa 1997 and 2009 would be it. Essendon also went from 1950 to 1962 without winning a premiership but had excelent teams behind the great Melbourne team of the era.
 
Saints 09-10 is a good suggestion by the OP
Collingwood of the early noughties coming up against the Brisbane juggernaut
Melbourne team of the late 1980s was laden with talent, they were killing it in the 87 finals series and would have won the grand final IMO if Stynes didn't have his brain fade in the prelim
 
Bay53 said:
yep left them out. 4 GF losses, although 1992 probably the only one when they were favourites.
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1993, when they missed finals, may actually have been their best chance to win.
 

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raskolnikov said:
1993, when they missed finals, may actually have been their best chance to win.
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Tim Watson has been on record saying that, he firmly believed by the end of that season Geelong were the best team in it. But we left our run too late & didn’t deserve to be in the finals.
 
Bay53 said:
If the criteria is NEVER to have won a GF, then I guess it has to be Freo or GWS who have made GFs ahead of Gold Coast and University.

if you are looking at the best teams in a given year who didn’t win the premiership I think Essendon 1999, Geelong 2008 and Richmond 2018 would be contenders.

if you are looking at the best teams who didn’t win a premiership in an era or 4 or 5 years, I would say St Kilda circa 1997 and 2009 would be it. Essendon also went from 1950 to 1962 without winning a premiership but had excelent teams behind the great Melbourne team of the era.
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The bolded is what i meant for clarity.
 
raskolnikov said:
Geelong of 89 to 95
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Awesome top end but with names such as Handley, Merriman, Miles, Poole, Rodgers, Wills, Breuer, Mensch, Tudor, Lord, Brown, Tanner, Schulze and Malakellis . . . . there is a reason why we never got past the best teams on grand final day.

If you take a look at St Kilda's list from 2001 onward, the amount of quality they had right down to the 15th man, they should have won a flag.
Some blokes like Dawson, McQualter, Clarke and Eddy were not much good but for the most part, they usually had elite talent in every position.
 
Carlton 2009 had the following:
  • Chris Judd aged 25 (and 12 months off winning the Brownlow)
  • Brendan Fevola aged 28, the reigning Coleman medallist, in his absolute prime
  • Murphy (21) and Gibbs (20), both of whom had just finished top 10 in the Brownlow
  • 22 year old Eddie Betts, arguable the best small forward ever, as well as 19yo Jeff Garlett
  • Chris Yarran, Andrew Walker, Jordan Russell, Shaun Grigg - all top 10 draft picks under the age of 22, and all solid enough at least
  • Matthew Kreuzer, Sam Jacobs, Shaun Hampson and Robbie Warnock as uckmen
  • a host of solid veterans- Kade Simpson, Jarrad Waite, Heath Scotland, Andrew Carazzo, Brad Fisher, Richard Hadlee, Ryan Houlihan, Michael Jamison, Bret Thornton- all aged 22-28 and with plenty of good footy left

Best 22 at the time:
b: Russell, Jamison, Scotland
hb: Yarran, Thornton, Simpson
c: Walker, Gibbs, Grigg
hf: Houlihan, Waite, Garlett
ff: Betts, Fevola, Kreuzer
Foll: Jacobs, Judd, Murphy

Bench: Carazzo, Fisher, Hadlee, Hampson,
Again, only Fev/Scotland are 28, and Houlihan 27. The rest of the team was 26 and under.

That team never finished higher than 5th in the years that followed. I reckon if you went back and replayed from that point forward 100 times that is just about the worst possible outcome.
 
Collingwood 1966_1970 specifically 1970. Best team in it by several goals.
Had been building beautifully over the previous five or six seasons. Ready to go and dominated the blues in the first half, famously leading by 44 at the break.
Injuries to Tuddenham and McKenna, made a difference but credit to Carlton they won on the day. FOr what it’s worth - nothing- Collingwood beat Carlton 12 goals to 2 in the H& A season in 1970 and by 99 points in 1971.
I am clearly biassed, but I have always regarded the Collingwood 1970 team as the best team to not win a premiership.
This game was significant in other ways too. If Collingwood continue with their first half dominance, Len Thomson might even have been selected in the TOC. He and Big Nick had a swag of outstanding clashes. There was never more that a cigarette paper between them.
 
btdg said:
Carlton 2009 had the following:
  • Chris Judd aged 25 (and 12 months off winning the Brownlow)
  • Brendan Fevola aged 28, the reigning Coleman medallist, in his absolute prime
  • Murphy (21) and Gibbs (20), both of whom had just finished top 10 in the Brownlow
  • 22 year old Eddie Betts, arguable the best small forward ever, as well as 19yo Jeff Garlett
  • Chris Yarran, Andrew Walker, Jordan Russell, Shaun Grigg - all top 10 draft picks under the age of 22, and all solid enough at least
  • Matthew Kreuzer, Sam Jacobs, Shaun Hampson and Robbie Warnock as uckmen
  • a host of solid veterans- Kade Simpson, Jarrad Waite, Heath Scotland, Andrew Carazzo, Brad Fisher, Richard Hadlee, Ryan Houlihan, Michael Jamison, Bret Thornton- all aged 22-28 and with plenty of good footy left

Best 22 at the time:
b: Russell, Jamison, Scotland
hb: Yarran, Thornton, Simpson
c: Walker, Gibbs, Grigg
hf: Houlihan, Waite, Garlett
ff: Betts, Fevola, Kreuzer
Foll: Jacobs, Judd, Murphy

Bench: Carazzo, Fisher, Hadlee, Hampson,
Again, only Fev/Scotland are 28, and Houlihan 27. The rest of the team was 26 and under.

That team never finished higher than 5th in the years that followed. I reckon if you went back and replayed from that point forward 100 times that is just about the worst possible outcome.
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Not a bad team but far from the best. The Saints of the same year were a much better team for a start.
 
raskolnikov said:
Not a bad team but far from the best. The Saints of the same year were a much better team for a start.
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I honestly think that St Kilda team is a bit over-rated, and that is part of the reason they didn't win the premiership. Some superstar players, but quite a lot of just 'guys' imo (Zac Dawson, Baker, Fisher, Gilbert, Farren Ray, Jones, Gram, Raph Clarke, Dempster... that's a lot of 'meh' players). If you compare Geelong, they probably only have Mark Blake, Wojcinski, Shannon Byrnes, and maybe Max Rooke in that category.

Their top end was excellent - but so was Geelong and Collingwood.

Obviously better than Carlton - our list was more about what should have been, rather than what ever was (ie: the guys who got injured and dropped off, the guys who were better at 19 than they were at 25, etc).
 
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