Is the Sydney-West Cost rivalry of the 2000s the best rivalry of the modern era?

[The Falcon Strike]

Essendon and the Weagles used to go alright. Cats and Hawks since the mid 80s. Cats and 'Aints since '02 or '03. Hawks and Bombers since '83.

What is the modern era anyway? '87 when Weagles and Bears came in or when the AFL came about in '90?

No doubt Essendon are our longest rivals - those bastards always seem to find a star to deny us victory

Madden, Salmon, Lloyd, Fletcher and Hird - all had miraculous performances as some stage to pig root us.

Special commendation to Lucas who also managed to pig root us in a game we won.

 

[anti_]

agree, lucas ended our 2007 season. if it wasn't for him we'd have lost to geelong in the 2007 grand final...not that it's something great, but it's better than bowing out in the semis.

 

[winty]

Despite Geelong and St Kilda playing out an absolutely amazing 2009 with a sensational H&A game an an even better GF, the Saints big rivals going into 2011 are Collingwood off the back of 2010's drawn GF then subsequent belting - but the real fuel behind the fire is the bad blood from Luke Ball jumping ship, Malthouse calling Milne a rapist etc.

The rivalry between Geelong and St.Kilda has been going since late 2003, or certainly since after the NAB Cup final in 2004. In Round 22, 2003, Bomber was keen to get a win over the Saints as he felt everyone was talking up St.Kilda's young players and neglecting Geelong's, and then after the NAB Cup grand final Paul Chapman came out and said although St.Kilda won that night, Geelong were the better team. Every game since then has pretty much been a last man standing affair. The 2009 grand final and last year's qualifying final were just the icing on the cake.

 

[justlookingaround]

No not really, I think there's somewhat of a mutual respect between Sydney and West Coast, though they are two clubs that obviously love to beat each other, and play off fantastic matches of footy, I don't think they genuinely hate each other enough to have the most fierce or the best of the modern game.
These are the best and most fierce modern rivalries IMO-

Geelong-St. Kilda The most interesting, both being labeled 'future powerhouses' when they were young teams, and both developing into the strongest in the comp, they eventually faced off in one of the best Grand Finals of all time.

Essendon-Collingwood Though it is a traditional rivalry, the ANZAC Day match is relatively new, and that has sparked a massive rivalry.

Geelong-Hawthorn An old rivalry renewed...

Essendon-Hawthorn The most physical rivalry.

Sydney-West Coast It's in there.. not the best though, certainly the closest...

 

[nthblood]

Hard to compare the rivarly b/w 2 expansion franchises in Sydney & WC & 2 football clubs, i.e. Collingwood & St. Kilda. I'm pretty certain most West Australians hate their W.A rivals (i.e. an East Fremantle to a South Fremantle supporter) more than another fabricated franchise in Sydney.

You total f%#chead, fabricated franchise, the club has been around since 1874, older than Britanna, your clubs orginal name.

 

[UrLordUnbeliever]

Yeah the Eagles and Bombers have had some great games over the past 20 odd years. Some really thrilling one point deciders - superstar efforts by the likes of Hird, Fletcher, Salmon, Lloyd etc to steal a win over the Eagles out of nowhere..
And when the Eagles win there have been some spectacular individual plays by Eagles players to get up, like Le Cras kicking an absolute BAG of goals against us at Etihad, and Nic Nat playing his best game ever earlier in the season. And then whoever wins there's the scarf-waving!
But there's not really much off-field rivalry.. Well I don't think there is. And the Eagles and Swans games were captivating, but I never got a sense of there being a lot of bad blood between the teams.
But there has been a very strong degree of animosity between the Essendon and Hawthorn playing groups since the '80s - as violence has ensued during games between those two sides quite regularly..

 

[davey_magik]

Geelong-Hawthorn is the best to watch over the past few years IMO.

 

[UrLordUnbeliever]

You total f%#chead, fabricated franchise, the club has been around since 1874, older than Britanna, your clubs orginal name.

You tell him - the SMFC may have moved, but they sure as hell aren't a franchise!!

 

[anti_]

who gives a shit, really?

the use of the word 'franchise' is just for vic supporters to make their 'traditional' clubs seem superior and it's their given right to be the only clubs to have 'real' rivalries against other 'traditional' clubs.

i couldn't care less what happened in the 50s or whatever, it's not like im 60 years old.

 

[rose jam]

Geelong-Hawthorn is the best to watch over the past few years IMO.

yep last 3 years these have been cracking games

West Coast-Sydney games were close but the sheite brand of Swans footy made them hard to watch

 

[Honeyboy Wilson]

It's hard to imagine long distance rivalries existing in the AFL. The Big 4 I can understand... the SA, WA and soon to be QLD and NSW teams I can understand... but I guess because the league is constantly changing, the rivalry factor is hard to kickstart.

Unlike in the NBA in the 80s when you had Boston and Lakers winning just about every year, a player rivalry in Bird and Magic, there was no way you could stop it.

 

[The Passenger]

Barry Hall certainly put quite the exclamation mark at the end of that particular rivalry anyway.

if bazza had have thrown that punch in say 2003 or 2004 it certainly would've added an extra interesting dynamic to the mix.

as a west coast fan who lived and grew up in sydney and was there over the 2005 and 2006 period it was about as good as rivalry as i can claim to have.

but people are right. it was just great for that period. there had never been anything before that. in fact, in 2004 if you asked for the "smallest" rivals in the league sydney west coast would've featured pretty prominently on that list....

 

[DUB_CEE]

Dunno bout best rivalry but they sure did play the best games for a few years.

 

[Suma Magic]

Don't know if its the best, because it was fairly short.

Any rivalry involving St Kilda can't win, as a truly great rivalry involves success for both clubs. I suppose that rules a lot out, but so it should. I think that both teams need to be able to claim that they had the best of the rivalry for it to be a great rivalry. I know both swans fans and our fans would claim it.

I'd say that the swans flag wasn't anything because it was won due to a 5% superior salary cap. swans fans would say that due to certain members of our team having taken recreational drugs during the year we won our flag that it has less value (like no one in their team did...and yes, west coast definitely would have taken more).

Looking at other sports, celtics lakers was epic cos both teams had success, same the Duke and North Carolina, Man U and Liverpool.

Essendon v Hawthorn in the 80s maybe the best? Can't really think of any others. North v west coast in the 90s was alright but after 1994 they won everything so not much of a rivalry.

 

[Pedro59]

rivalry..how boring...what rivalry?

try a bit of Port versus Crows for some real rivalry...try looking at Bay13 even in the off season FFS..yeah count the threads then compare to Sydney versus WC..what a non event....

I mean father versus son brother versus brother ...whole lives exist or depend on the ol showdowns..an not just showdowns..its a hatred of the opposite colurs from birth

I mean people won't go to work if they lose and the players talk openly about not wanting to go out when they lose.....their captains brawl in the pub...

presidents hate each other but have had to detune it a bit cause it was gonna get like pommy soccer games...

not just showdowns either fans get bashed in airports by oppositions players and then the 'fans ' get run outa town by tghe bashers supporters..jobs a got or lost if you back the wrong side..

swans versus WC a rivalry...? pulease! what a lot of nothing

 

[Pedro59]

rivalry..how boring...what rivalry?

try a bit of Port versus Crows for some real rivalry...try looking at Bay13 even in the off season FFS..yeah count the threads then compare to Sydney versus WC..what a non event....

I mean father versus son brother versus brother ...whole lives exist or depend on the ol showdowns..an not just showdowns..its a hatred of the opposite colurs from birth

I mean people won't go to work if they lose and the players talk openly about not wanting to go out when they lose.....their captains brawl in the pub...

presidents hate each other but have had to detune it a bit cause it was gonna get like pommy soccer games...

not just showdowns either fans get bashed in airports by oppositions players and then the 'fans ' get run outa town by tghe bashers supporters..jobs a got or lost if you back the wrong side..

swans versus WC a rivalry...? pulease! what a lot of nothing

 

[Twist_of_Lemon]

...whole lives exist or depend on the ol showdowns..

lol? Settle down. You'd have to be a nutjob to take it that seriously.

 

[Quinz]

Pretty much been covered in the thread already, but on-field it is a rivalry that I can't see being beaten for a long, long time, in terms of the closeness and the importance of the games.

Off-field, not so much.

 

[ziad]

The answer is no as WC supporters would prefer to beat Fremantle than the Swans regardless of how competitive the games were.

The style played by Sydney doesn't help as well. It is a chore not a contest

 

[Suma Magic]

Port and Adelaide, yeah there's a lot of hatred, but has there been a single game of true consequence? a prelim or GF?

I think you are confusing 'fans that hate each other most' with best rivalry.

 

[bodazoka]

Surely it is? At least it is in my eyes (I've been following football since 1990).

These are two teams that played in two very close GF's, and could hardly be separated in H&A and finals matches for about 3-4 years.

I seriously think that had these teams been in Melbourne, it would have become one of the best rivalries of all time.

Agree? Disagree?

Absolutely agree.

You throw in the fact that we had some absolute champion memorable moments as well:

Leo Barry saving mark for sydney in 05
Daniel Kerr game saving tackle round 1 2006
Daniel Chick smother for a hunter goal in the grand final of 06
Barry Hall Brent Staker punch
Mickey O' rushing up to that fat Eagles supporter
Cousins come back game from drugs.

Also more recently in 09 when we lost against them in the last 10-15 seconds of the match because Eric McKenzie stuffed a kick deep in defence.

It was also born naturally, there was not any forced AFL tv ratings style rivalries.

 

[Pedro59]

This :


The answer is no as WC supporters would prefer to beat Fremantle than the Swans regardless of how competitive the games were.

The style played by Sydney doesn't help as well. It is a chore not a contest


and....

rivalry doesn't just have to be measured in grand finals (maybe the most slow boring and ugly could be ...hey even Demetriou was embarrassed by the dullness of the swans versus WC GF's...will never be in a highlights promo package)

whats wrong with hatred?

 

[bodazoka]

Pedro... you can not be seriously saying that both those grand finals were boring with no highlights?

Did you actually watch them?

 

[J_Moore]

Pedro prefers his grand finals to be 100+ point blowouts.

 

[Swans120]

Saying that the '06 and '05 GF's were not contests is just about the most ridiculous thing I've ever read on BF.