Review Grand Final, 2024 - Sydney vs. Brisbane Lions

[Gadzorks]

Hadn't seen this before; YT recommended it to me today and nice work by Jay who put it together:



Never get tired of anything associated with this GF.

Wonder if I'll ever stop getting misty eyes when I watch the premiership media.

 

[dlanod]

Wonder if I'll ever stop getting misty eyes when I watch the premiership media.

It still doesn't seem real to me

 

[MSB ROYS]

It still doesn't seem real to me

Agree, but interestingly 2001 was amazing but felt real to me.

 

[Section 5]

2023 and 2024 felt more real to me more so than the 2001-2004 era.
Mainly because i went to the last two GF's and it is recent history.

In the 3 peat my 2 girls were 8 and 9 and i can't really remember those games probably because i had lots of interruptions during game time.
I am sure i was over the moon in those three wins just can't recall much as i got older. Was also a drinker at that time so i probably have lots of dead brain cells in the memory area since then.

 

[martinson]

2023 and 2024 felt more real to me more so than the 2001-2004 era.
Mainly because i went to the last two GF's and it is recent history.

In the 3 peat my 2 girls were 8 and 9 and i can't really remember those games probably because i had lots of interruptions during game time.
I am sure i was over the moon in those three wins just can't recall much as i got older. Was also a drinker at that time so i probably have lots of dead brain cells in the memory area since then.

Interesting how your perspective changes as you get older .I could barely watch in 2001 -3 and a nervous wreck in 2004 because as history was staring us in the face random things started to turn against us.

2023 I really expected to win and whilst disappointed it was just one of those things that you expect in life as you get older.

2024 I gave us no hope from the middle of the year so was able to really enjoy our games leading into the finals and was so chilled by GF day after we'd gotten out of jail twice there was this strange calm that this could actually be our year. Halfway through the 2nd quarter it was all over . So no elation from me like say in 2001 , just a warm feeling that justice had been done.

 

[Grasshopper17]

2023 and 2024 felt more real to me more so than the 2001-2004 era.
Mainly because i went to the last two GF's and it is recent history.

In the 3 peat my 2 girls were 8 and 9 and i can't really remember those games probably because i had lots of interruptions during game time.
I am sure i was over the moon in those three wins just can't recall much as i got older. Was also a drinker at that time so i probably have lots of dead brain cells in the memory area since then.

The drinking thing is interesting. I'm a little reluctant to share this cos I'm a bit embarrassed about it... But other folks have been far more open about their lives etc on this forum, so all good.

I actually got told off (several times) by fans around me at the Carlton final. I'd only started drinking (with mates, I never drink solo ) at around 5:30pm in the lead up to the game, so it wasn't as tho I'd been going all day and had drunk a skinful. But I'd had just enough for my emotions to be heightened to the point where I watched basically the entire game with this sense of dread and paranoia that we'd be run down from behind. As had happened several times during the year already, not least the preceding 3 weeks.

I mean, in my defence, Dom Fay titled his podcast for that week "60-0 and still scared", so I was in good company with arguably the Lions supporter base's ultimate optimist. Besides Nunez perhaps

But even so, the comment early in the last quarter from some random about how I was "ruining it for everyone" stuck with me a bit, so much so in fact that I committed to cutting off the alcohol 3 hours before the first bounce for the rest of the finals series.

So I watched the next 3 finals with a relative sense of calm. My mates in Sydney were a bit annoyed with me cutting myself off at 4:30 before the Giants game, but I'd rather that than losing the plot completely as I might have done otherwise.

I'll admit to being completely shocked, bewildered even, still, by the Giants semi. I have no idea where it came from; I didn't think the effort had been that bad for the first two and a half quarters. We'd just been beaten (smashed) by a better team. And given our last quarter record to that point, there was absolutely no reason to think we could or would be able to run the deficit down.

The prelim was just utter pride at the performance, losing Oscar (more or less) in the first quarter, but seeing EVERY player contribute to the victory in some manner was something I don't think we'd really seen before. Even in previous games we'd won, there was usually the odd quiet/poor individual performance.

And then the Grand Final, it was actually a bit of an anti-climax, almost a coronation, a celebration, not so much of winning a premiership, but more a celebration of our style of football. It was more the pure satisfaction of seeing us play the way we all knew we were capable of, and had known this since the first quarter of opening round. All the times this year I heard people say "team X's best is THE best", I never said it outwardly because I didn't want to jinx us, but my inner-response was always "you must not have seen our first quarter of opening round".

I'll admit it was so hard to keep that to myself tho The big question of course was whether we'd be able to reproduce that on the biggest day, after 4 straight finals and 3 consecutive weeks of travel.

So yeah, no tears at any of the finals this year. I think the 3 times I've got the waterworks going at a game were the Geelong game in 2019, the Melbourne final in 2022, and the Melbourne win at the Gabba this year. That night I thought our lads finally grew up, coming back to win a game played almost exclusively on our opponents' terms.

The other Grand Finals, in 2001 as a naive 19 year old, I fully expected us to run over the top of Essendon in pretty much the manner we did, particularly when the mercury reached 27 or 28 that afternoon. 2002 I knew would be tough, partly because of the weather (single digits, wet and windy) and the way that would suit Collingwood and the Melthouse style of game.

2003 really was a bonus to me; at 3 quarter time of the prelim I'd resigned myself to the fact that the Swans were gonna run over the top of us with their fresher legs compared to all the injuries our guys were carrying. And for the same reason I doubted we'd be able to play a full 4 quarters in the Grand Final. Our last 5 quarters of that season were something very special.

2004 was the one I was most confident in. Port had all the history of being finals chokers, they got lucky with the timing of Fraser Gehrig's 100th goal the week before in the Prelim. I just knew we were gonna smash em. Our Qualifying Final win against St Kilda was some of the best football I've ever seen played, by any team.

The 2004 Grand Final is a lesson I will take to the grave with me, and it's the reason I never make bold/over-the-top predictions in our favour any more. If I'm gonna be wrong, I'd prefer to be pleasantly surprised than crushingly disappointed.

 

[dlanod]

Agree, but interestingly 2001 was amazing but felt real to me.

I think in 2001-2003 I had expectations all season. 2023 was gutting for the same reason. After falling so far back in 2024, I never really built up those same expectations so when we came back over GWS it was just disbelief, and then again with the lead changes against Geelong, and then the way we won against the Swans yet again. It felt more like a dream than anything approaching reality and still does in a way.

 

[Gadzorks]

The drinking thing is interesting. I'm a little reluctant to share this cos I'm a bit embarrassed about it... But other folks have been far more open about their lives etc on this forum, so all good.

I actually got told off (several times) by fans around me at the Carlton final. I'd only started drinking (with mates, I never drink solo ) at around 5:30pm in the lead up to the game, so it wasn't as tho I'd been going all day and had drunk a skinful. But I'd had just enough for my emotions to be heightened to the point where I watched basically the entire game with this sense of dread and paranoia that we'd be run down from behind. As had happened several times during the year already, not least the preceding 3 weeks.

I mean, in my defence, Dom Fay titled his podcast for that week "60-0 and still scared", so I was in good company with arguably the Lions supporter base's ultimate optimist. Besides Nunez perhaps

But even so, the comment early in the last quarter from some random about how I was "ruining it for everyone" stuck with me a bit, so much so in fact that I committed to cutting off the alcohol 3 hours before the first bounce for the rest of the finals series.

So I watched the next 3 finals with a relative sense of calm. My mates in Sydney were a bit annoyed with me cutting myself off at 4:30 before the Giants game, but I'd rather that than losing the plot completely as I might have done otherwise.

I'll admit to being completely shocked, bewildered even, still, by the Giants semi. I have no idea where it came from; I didn't think the effort had been that bad for the first two and a half quarters. We'd just been beaten (smashed) by a better team. And given our last quarter record to that point, there was absolutely no reason to think we could or would be able to run the deficit down.

The prelim was just utter pride at the performance, losing Oscar (more or less) in the first quarter, but seeing EVERY player contribute to the victory in some manner was something I don't think we'd really seen before. Even in previous games we'd won, there was usually the odd quiet/poor individual performance.

And then the Grand Final, it was actually a bit of an anti-climax, almost a coronation, a celebration, not so much of winning a premiership, but more a celebration of our style of football. It was more the pure satisfaction of seeing us play the way we all knew we were capable of, and had known this since the first quarter of opening round. All the times this year I heard people say "team X's best is THE best", I never said it outwardly because I didn't want to jinx us, but my inner-response was always "you must not have seen our first quarter of opening round".

I'll admit it was so hard to keep that to myself tho The big question of course was whether we'd be able to reproduce that on the biggest day, after 4 straight finals and 3 consecutive weeks of travel.

So yeah, no tears at any of the finals this year. I think the 3 times I've got the waterworks going at a game were the Geelong game in 2019, the Melbourne final in 2022, and the Melbourne win at the Gabba this year. That night I thought our lads finally grew up, coming back to win a game played almost exclusively on our opponents' terms.

The other Grand Finals, in 2001 as a naive 19 year old, I fully expected us to run over the top of Essendon in pretty much the manner we did, particularly when the mercury reached 27 or 28 that afternoon. 2002 I knew would be tough, partly because of the weather (single digits, wet and windy) and the way that would suit Collingwood and the Melthouse style of game.

2003 really was a bonus to me; at 3 quarter time of the prelim I'd resigned myself to the fact that the Swans were gonna run over the top of us with their fresher legs compared to all the injuries our guys were carrying. And for the same reason I doubted we'd be able to play a full 4 quarters in the Grand Final. Our last 5 quarters of that season were something very special.

2004 was the one I was most confident in. Port had all the history of being finals chokers, they got lucky with the timing of Fraser Gehrig's 100th goal the week before in the Prelim. I just knew we were gonna smash em. Our Qualifying Final win against St Kilda was some of the best football I've ever seen played, by any team.

The 2004 Grand Final is a lesson I will take to the grave with me, and it's the reason I never make bold/over-the-top predictions in our favour any more. If I'm gonna be wrong, I'd prefer to be pleasantly surprised than crushingly disappointed.

Damn it. My eyes just got misty again.

Thanks for sharing.