Most Heartbreaking Loss

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1. 95 GF. Told myself I would never go to or even watch a GF we were in if we weren't favourites. Riccardi, our only quick, off with a Hammy, Buddha whitelinefeveritis, gone, the culmination of every loss I'd seen since 1967, which dare I repeat, 89 GF, 92, 94 GF's, and those finals in 80, 81. Hate them all. Nothing positive about that stuff.

2. 2010 Loss against Saints after celebrating that Ling goal. Ecstasy and agony in 30 seconds.

3. Watching Nick Davis destroy our forlorn hope of hanging on. Just knew it would happen, but still shat me..

4. Ditto 2008 GF. Had that horrible feeling all week leading in to the game, and utterly convinced when we saw Stokes run out, Wojo in the stands. The mistake of playing injured players. At least Dog defied the trend of risk and loss this year. As it was, the better September team did win on the day.
 
I was so gutted by the 1997 QF final loss, I really thought that was our year.

2008 hurt, as did 2005, but I got over those after 07 and 09.
 

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For me it would be:
1. 2005 vs Sydney - Whenever i see footage of that my stomach gets tighter. Cried like a baby that night.
2. 2008 vs Hawthorn - Like most of you have mentioned i have no recollection of the game. Someone was showing me highlights on youtube a while ago and every play i questioned whether or not it really happened. How the **** did Dew pull those goals out his arse???
3. 2000 vs Hawthorn - This one hasn't been mentioned yet. It just sucked losing to Hawthorn in a final...again. Plus we finished 5th and they were 8th,s o we should have beaten 'em. Plus it was Stonehams' last game.

Games like WC in 06 and StK in 10 just made me angry.
 
The 4 from 89 to 95 were tough, was a teenager then.

However one that never seems to get much of a mention was the 2004 Prelim. It was an exciting time, first finals series for a while. After losing to Port in the first final I remember what a great feeling it was at the ground beating Essendon, I hated them for so long, from chants of "Ablett is a wan*er while he was kicking 14 at the G to just their general feeling of superiority over us. Was great sticking it up them! I seem to remember Milburn doing good jobs on Hird including that game, underrated rivalry perhaps? He was a smart player, that Dasher :)

Anyway come the PF I felt we played better than Brisbane on the night and had our chances, we just couldn't get in front and kick goals when we needed to. The siren goes and you think "Season over, what a waste!" Not having seen the game since I remember being really angry at Ben Graham, I don't think he ever stood up for us in a big game and let us down that night, choked a bit. Just checked the stats and they show that he kicked 0.4 so maybe my memory is correct. Also remember Riccardi kicking a torp for goal and it not coming off...just a lack of composure across the board under pressure. And it seemed noticeable that some guys didn't want to put themselves in the position to have crucial shots, like Kent Kingsley in particular. To me one of the keys to our current great era to me was moving on Kent & Graham leaving and having Moons go forward and playing through him, just having a forward with some nuts for a change made such a big difference.

So yeah 2004 was bad, I was not expecting us to win the flag but you never know, it's all about giving yourself a chance. 2005 was on a whole other level when you really started hated being a Geelong supporter. Thankfully that's changed!
 
One that hasn't been mentioned is the loss to Carlton in 2001 - the game with the SOS-Milburn incident. While the loss was probably to be expected, since we couldn't make the finals and Carlton were firmly entrenched in the top eight, the manner we went about it in that game sucked and was very un-Geelonglike. To not kick a goal after quarter time while being more interested in going the man and not the ball was a disgrace, and was a shocking way to send off a club legend in Buddha Hocking.

We pride ourselves in playing the game as it should be played, but we didn't do it that day.
 
winty said:
One that hasn't been mentioned is the loss to Carlton in 2001 - the game with the SOS-Milburn incident. While the loss was probably to be expected, since we couldn't make the finals and Carlton were firmly entrenched in the top eight, the manner we went about it in that game sucked and was very un-Geelonglike. To not kick a goal after quarter time while being more interested in going the man and not the ball was a disgrace, and was a shocking way to send off a club legend in Buddha Hocking.

We pride ourselves in playing the game as it should be played, but we didn't do it that day.
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I have a slightly different take on that game Winty, or more specifically the SOS incident, I actually think it was a bit of a defining moment in our this group. To me it felt like probably since the 60s that we’d had this soft label applied to us, whether unjustified or not. And I felt that teams liked Hawthorn & the Eagles sh*tting all over us in the mentally & physically had perpetuated that perception in to the 2000s. Sure we’d had some ruthless competitors in that time, Gaz Snr & Buddha to name two, but certainly not as many as we have now.
The fact that it was SOS who was the target, it was a bit of a “wow Dasher shot bambi” moment, “he touched an untouchable!” I thought maybe it was the start of us getting more ruthless in our approach. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like king hits or going the knuckle, and I like football to be pure, but you do need that bit of mongrel. And really Dasher delivered a bump, in play, in a style that Gaz Snr did many times before it became illegal (rightfully so). So it certainly was a charge, but not a king hit or anything like that. So to me it was a little symbolic that it was SOS. And I liked how Dasher walked off kind of not showing he was intimidated by the crowd, who were going nuts at him. He may have been a bit worried, but he didn’t show it. And that playing on the edge style has certainly carried on, Scarlett, Chappy, Moons, Selwood etc
 
A game at Princes Park in the mid 80' s against Hawthorn?-we lost after being a long way ahead-such humiliation, again.

1995-the manner of the loss was so gut wrenching, following on from 'the others'-started to feel like it was our fate and might never see a win-and yes that talented group was never going to get what they deserved. -my brother and I walked back into the city after the game -I don't think either of us spoke from about three quarter time until we said goodbye at Flinders st.
 
1995 was gutting too but being a with a Carlton supporting mate who had copped as much abuse as I had growing up in WA I was happy for him. I was also happy we'd all won over $100 each on the horse Achtung Baby at Belmont that afternoon too. I just found 95 and 08 just numbing.
 
Cosmic Energy said:
I have a slightly different take on that game Winty, or more specifically the SOS incident, I actually think it was a bit of a defining moment in our this group. To me it felt like probably since the 60s that we’d had this soft label applied to us, whether unjustified or not. And I felt that teams liked Hawthorn & the Eagles sh*tting all over us in the mentally & physically had perpetuated that perception in to the 2000s. Sure we’d had some ruthless competitors in that time, Gaz Snr & Buddha to name two, but certainly not as many as we have now.
The fact that it was SOS who was the target, it was a bit of a “wow Dasher shot bambi” moment, “he touched an untouchable!” I thought maybe it was the start of us getting more ruthless in our approach. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like king hits or going the knuckle, and I like football to be pure, but you do need that bit of mongrel. And really Dasher delivered a bump, in play, in a style that Gaz Snr did many times before it became illegal (rightfully so). So it certainly was a charge, but not a king hit or anything like that. So to me it was a little symbolic that it was SOS. And I liked how Dasher walked off kind of not showing he was intimidated by the crowd, who were going nuts at him. He may have been a bit worried, but he didn’t show it. And that playing on the edge style has certainly carried on, Scarlett, Chappy, Moons, Selwood etc
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Which would have been well and good, if we hadn't embarrassed ourselves on the ground. As winty said, there is no way that not kicking a goal for the final three quarters of a game and getting destroyed during a club legend's last game can be seen as being ruthless. It looked gutless, plain and simple. A pissweak performance, where we couldn't stack up against the opposition so we took our eyes off the ball and focused on the man, when they had no real way of retaliating (without risking players being suspended for their finals campaign). it still makes me angry when I see footage from that game.

Selwood's constant disregard for his own welfare , Max Rooke in the 2009 grand final, Chappy when he gets angry, Josh Hunt against the Bulldogs this year and, yes, Darren Milburn on many, many other occasions. That is the hardness that the Geelong Football club is about. not the crap that they resorted to that dark day at Princes Park.
 
Cosmic Energy said:
However one that never seems to get much of a mention was the 2004 Prelim. )

Anyway come the PF I felt we played better than Brisbane on the night and had our chances, we just couldn't get in front and kick goals when we needed to. The siren goes and you think "Season over, what a waste!" Not having seen the game since I remember being really angry at Ben Graham, I don't think he ever stood up for us in a big game and let us down that night, choked a bit. Just checked the stats and they show that he kicked 0.4 so maybe my memory is correct. Also remember Riccardi kicking a torp for goal and it not coming off...just a lack of composure across the board under pressure. And it seemed noticeable that some guys didn't want to put themselves in the position to have crucial shots, like Kent Kingsley in particular. To me one of the keys to our current great era to me was moving on Kent & Graham leaving and having Moons go forward and playing through him, just having a forward with some nuts for a change made such a big difference.
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I remember that night fairly well. The whole family was here for my daughters 1st birthday. I remember my brother not wanting to watch it.

I said why? will you be happy if we get within 6 goals? I know I will be.
Yes.
Right. Well we're in front so you may as well come and watch it.

I didn't think Kent played that night? Someone didn't because we played a guy out of full forward and it was the only game he ever looked up to it.
Was it Haines?

And yes we probably could have won that game. If we had composure.
Didn't bother me though.
 
Jim Boy said:
Round 22, 1987 was pretty bad. Needed to win to make the finals for the first time in six years. Leading all of the match only for Jason Bloody Dunstall to kick the winning goal late on in time-on.
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Jesus, and I was having such a great day - that's for reminding me of this. :mad: Still remember the long trip home, and the thought that there wouldn't be anything to see at the MCG until Dean Jones padded up in the ODIs!
 

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In recent memory, the final game of the 2006 season against the Hawks at Telstra Dome. I seriously considered giving the Cats and therefore footy all away during and after this one. The complete lack of effort and interest shown by everyone in the team just gutted me, and thoughts ran along the lines of "Why the hell should I dream and care about this ratbag buch of f***ers if they can't be arsed either?" To see all this unfold against the Hawks yet again, with friggin' Crawf running around like a 20 year old, was horrific.
 
vinum coupe said:
I didn't think Kent played that night? Someone didn't because we played a guy out of full forward and it was the only game he ever looked up to it.
Was it Haines?

And yes we probably could have won that game. If we had composure.
Didn't bother me though.
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Kent played, kicked 2.1. He got suspended in the Port game I think, but only missed the Essendon game...I remember wishing he missed more! Sad but true :) Haynes did play, but it wasn't for Kent. Playfair didn't play, and played the other finals it seems, so maybe it was for him.
 
In my case, i'm of the vintage that is old enough to recall the pain of those consecutive Preliminary Final losses to the Pies in 1980-81.....and curse the presence of Waverley as it was a ground we simply were no good at in big games.

But for me 2008 Grand Final made me feel the emptiest after a game i ever felt. The stinging realisation that a season of 23-2 was a waste, took a fair bit of getting over. But after two more flags i'm not dirty on that wasted chance, as one wonders if Geelong would have won another flag anyway had they gone bck-to-back.

One game though that was gut wrenching for me was the 2002 Rd 17 game against Adelaide coached of course by our old nemesis Gary Ayres. Geelong were on a 7-match winning run, sitting confidently in the top 8 with a 10-6 record, and a win over the Crows would have put us 4th. Alas, despite Geelong dominating every stat in the game bar kicking accuracy, we lost 12.18.90 to an incredulous 15.3.93.

Ricciuto just couldn't miss, and it just seemed an army of blonde-rinse Crows would get a goal just at the time we looked like taking control. Geelong also suffered big time after that loss, subsiding from their 10-6 record to win a single game for the rest of the year and miss the finals with an 11-11- record.

The 1991 2nd Semi final loss was also heartbreaking, as the rewards for a win were so great, the penalty so painful. Darren Jarman, i still curse you for that left foot snap late in the last quarter.

For reasons that many others would know from my 'Hawk Torment' thread the series of narrow losses to the Hawks at K.P in the mid-late 90's under Ayres was infuriating. Twice these ended an unbeaten 5-0 start to the season. Throw in the 1987 Rd 22 game, the 1989 Rd 6 game and several others, the Hawks have had their part to play in several heartbreaking moments.

Short synopsis for me of the Grand Final losses were:-

1989:- Great game, brave effort with a youngish side, more proud than devastated. Plus first GF i'd seen Geelong participate in.

1992:- Haunted by the miracle Sumich half-time snap, and Matera playing his best every game. Very empty feeling at game's end.

1994:- To be honest, after two after the siren wins in preceding finals, a feeling Geelong was somewhat lucky to be in there, and a big loss while crap to watch, you could understand why it might have been so.

1995:- Never in the game, Blues scored 4-0 goals and took control early in the 2nd quarter. Having Clape, Pearce and Spalding dominate against us was hard to take believe me.

2008:- Learned the golden rule of finals. bever take unfit/underdone players into a big game, and always err on the side of extra pace if in doubt. No Byrnes or Wojack meant no zip. Bateman, Crawford and Williams played decisive games. Few could have though a combined 4 goals to Rough-Face and Flankin would have been enough for a Hawk win.
 
VEEDUBS said:
1. 95 GF. Told myself I would never go to or even watch a GF we were in if we weren't favourites. Riccardi, our only quick, off with a Hammy, Buddha whitelinefeveritis, gone, the culmination of every loss I'd seen since 1967, which dare I repeat, 89 GF, 92, 94 GF's, and those finals in 80, 81. Hate them all. Nothing positive about that stuff.

2. 2010 Loss against Saints after celebrating that Ling goal. Ecstasy and agony in 30 seconds.

3. Watching Nick Davis destroy our forlorn hope of hanging on. Just knew it would happen, but still shat me..

4. Ditto 2008 GF. Had that horrible feeling all week leading in to the game, and utterly convinced when we saw Stokes run out, Wojo in the stands. The mistake of playing injured players. At least Dog defied the trend of risk and loss this year. As it was, the better September team did win on the day.
Click to expand...
Yeah this was a shocker that I think a lot of us have forgotten so quickly.

Half way through the third and we were down 69-42. As we expect from this side, we rallied and kicked five of the next six to only trail by 11 heading into the final quarter.

In the last we kicked 1.7 to St Kilda's 1.0 (their only shot coming from a turnover and counter attack leaving Schneider free inside 50). I think Chapman hit the post? The last score of the match came more than seven minutes before the siren, and as the match was heading to what looked to be its conclusion and I thought the siren was seconds away, the Cats went torp-torp-turnover-Ling goal in the space of 15 seconds. I hugged a stranger. It was chaos. We'd done it to St Kilda again!

Alas that rare feeling you get in rare moments like that didn't last very long on this occasion.
 
I can't ever remember being so ecstatic after a goal as well...only thing that came close was the 09 GF but even then it was pretty clear for a couple of minutes that we were going to win. For that twenty, thirty seconds when we thought it was a goal - have never celebrated so hard...

Afterwards walked from the G to my house in Richmond in the pouring rain, got drenched, didn't care, absolutely inconsolable. Walked through the courtyard of the church on Richmond Hill and it was eerily beautiful between the floodlights and the rain...but I wasn't really in the mood to consider religious iconography at that particular moment.
 
1. 2005 2nd semi final vs Sydney - was absolutely heart broken and mad as hell to the point i was ripping the covers off the pillows on the couch and destroyed what was inside. TV was immediately switched off and i could've done a hell of a lot more damage.

2. 2008 grand final vs Hawthorn - was shattered that I knew that we had wasted what is possibly our greatest season I'll ever see, to go 21-1 and lose like we did was just dumbfounding. Red hot favourites, missed so many gettable shots, underdone players and injuries yet when i look back at the margin at 3/4 time it was 17 points and that was still within winning distance. It was also my mum's birthday that day...sigh :(

3. 2006 round 10 vs West Coast - thought we had the game in the bag at 3/4 time, but sure enough we did what we all knew Geelong was capable of doing and that is giving up a huge lead. Relaxation at 3/4 time, nightmare at full time.
 
Catsace said:
In my case, i'm of the vintage that is old enough to recall the pain of those consecutive Preliminary Final losses to the Pies in 1980-81.....and curse the presence of Waverley as it was a ground we simply were no good at in big games.

But for me 2008 Grand Final made me feel the emptiest after a game i ever felt. The stinging realisation that a season of 23-2 was a waste, took a fair bit of getting over. But after two more flags i'm not dirty on that wasted chance, as one wonders if Geelong would have won another flag anyway had they gone bck-to-back.

One game though that was gut wrenching for me was the 2002 Rd 17 game against Adelaide coached of course by our old nemesis Gary Ayres. Geelong were on a 7-match winning run, sitting confidently in the top 8 with a 10-6 record, and a win over the Crows would have put us 4th. Alas, despite Geelong dominating every stat in the game bar kicking accuracy, we lost 12.18.90 to an incredulous 15.3.93.

Ricciuto just couldn't miss, and it just seemed an army of blonde-rinse Crows would get a goal just at the time we looked like taking control. Geelong also suffered big time after that loss, subsiding from their 10-6 record to win a single game for the rest of the year and miss the finals with an 11-11- record.

The 1991 2nd Semi final loss was also heartbreaking, as the rewards for a win were so great, the penalty so painful. Darren Jarman, i still curse you for that left foot snap late in the last quarter.

For reasons that many others would know from my 'Hawk Torment' thread the series of narrow losses to the Hawks at K.P in the mid-late 90's under Ayres was infuriating. Twice these ended an unbeaten 5-0 start to the season. Throw in the 1987 Rd 22 game, the 1989 Rd 6 game and several others, the Hawks have had their part to play in several heartbreaking moments.

Short synopsis for me of the Grand Final losses were:-

1989:- Great game, brave effort with a youngish side, more proud than devastated. Plus first GF i'd seen Geelong participate in.

1992:- Haunted by the miracle Sumich half-time snap, and Matera playing his best every game. Very empty feeling at game's end.

1994:- To be honest, after two after the siren wins in preceding finals, a feeling Geelong was somewhat lucky to be in there, and a big loss while crap to watch, you could understand why it might have been so.

1995:- Never in the game, Blues scored 4-0 goals and took control early in the 2nd quarter. Having Clape, Pearce and Spalding dominate against us was hard to take believe me.

2008:- Learned the golden rule of finals. bever take unfit/underdone players into a big game, and always err on the side of extra pace if in doubt. No Byrnes or Wojack meant no zip. Bateman, Crawford and Williams played decisive games. Few could have though a combined 4 goals to Rough-Face and Flankin would have been enough for a Hawk win.
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Yeah I am the same. At the time I was just numb and couldn't believe we had wasted such a great chance, but after winning 2 more flags, had we gone back2back the boys may not of had the hunger to win it in 09, so 08 is only slightly angering now. I've even watched the match a few times and that's something I never thought I'd do.
 
Wow -you are tough-I have not watched 2008 replay and am pretty sure I never will.
Nonetheless 3 flags in 5 years is unbelievably brilliant and I am as happy as Larry about my club, so can now at least cope with the fact we lost that one.
 
whoopsman said:
3. 2006 round 10 vs West Coast - thought we had the game in the bag at 3/4 time, but sure enough we did what we all knew Geelong was capable of doing and that is giving up a huge lead. Relaxation at 3/4 time, nightmare at full time.
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That wasn't the first time the Eagles had done that to us at Skilled. I can still remember when we played them in 1993. It was the week after Gaz had kicked 14 goals against Essendon, and we were about 6-7 goals up halfway through the 3rd term. Malthouse moved Ashley McIntosh to full forward and he kicked 3-4 goals as the Eagles overran us to win by a couple of goals.

Given how much we missed the finals by that year, that loss proved critical in hindsight.
 
Most heartbreaking loss?...the correct answer is 'All of them!'

But if I had to single one it would be '08 GF. After '07 I decided I would pay whatever it took to take my son (8 at the time) to a Cats GF and see them win a premiership. Couldn't believe in that second quarter that we could not put Hawthorn to the sword with all the chances we had. Kept believing we would straighten up and kick away. When Tom came back on I thought that would be the catalyst....but alas....(we were both devastated listening to that bl@@dy song as we left the MCG!)

Since then, my son and I have been to the '09 and '11 GFs - and left the MCG singing a much better song!
 

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Most Heartbreaking Loss

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