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2013 Prelim was a GREAT win
But I cannot go past 2014 GF for Hawthorn.
But I cannot go past 2014 GF for Hawthorn.
SEN's list of each club's best win from the past 25 years
- Thread starter MC Extra Dollop
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How stiff were Geelong? Done in by Sam Weideman's one good game in his career.
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Interesting that this goes back 25 years but doesn't include Essendon's 69 point comeback.
What a joke.
Collingwood have had so many better wins than resigning Carlton to their 9th consecutive season outside of the finals in the final round of 2022.
Off the top of my head (excluding Grand Finals):
There's 6 without thinking. Finals are where it's at.
Collingwood have had so many better wins than resigning Carlton to their 9th consecutive season outside of the finals in the final round of 2022.
Off the top of my head (excluding Grand Finals):
- 2002 Qualifying Final v. Top of the table Port Adelaide, in Adelaide;
- 2007 semi-final, in extra time, against West Coast in Perth;
- 2009 semi-final v. Adelaide, in Adelaide ('Right in front of me...');
- 2011 Preliminary Final against Hawthorn;
- 2018 Preliminary Final v. the all conquering Tigers;
- 2023 Preliminary Final against GWS;
There's 6 without thinking. Finals are where it's at.
2002 Qualifying Final vs top of the table Port Adelaide in Adelaide was a 'great win', came into game as 'big underdogs' and played some tremendous footy. Only got beat by 9 points in the granny that year to the all conquering Brisbane Lions, so that win in Adelaide was monumental.
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It's why I think finals should be excluded from consideration, or at least separated with a 'best H&A win' and 'best finals win (excluding grand finals)' nomination. Because any preliminary final win is 10 times better than the best H&A win. Any qualifying final win is five times better. It isn't fair to compare them.
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Chadwiko
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If we're doing the last 25 years, then for me the two most obvious choices for NMFC are;
2008 Semi Final over the Hawks
2004 comeback against Sydney ("Jones! Jones!")
2008 Semi Final over the Hawks
2004 comeback against Sydney ("Jones! Jones!")
True. People could nominate their best finals and non finals win.
I already nominated best final.
Best non finals:
-Pick from many in the Geelong/Hawthorn Kennet curse. The Bartel point after the siren game was incredible, as was Hawthorn roosting a goal from 80m after the siren in 2012.
-The Richmond massacre in 2007 that started a dynasty.
-It might not have been important, but Riccardi's "definitely not touched" goal after the siren against Carlton around 2003 was a great game to be at - more so the relief after nearly throwing away the game from a big lead.
-Beating St Kilda around the 2004/2005 period no doubt gave some of our future superstars belief.
-I know the players referenced how important getting over the line in the Richmond game in 2022 was, again after almost letting it slip. Great finishing sequence. We were pretty dominant from that point on and finished so many games strongly.
Here's a quick list of Geelong H&A games I can come up with outside of the already-covered two post-siren wins against Hawthorn.
2004, R13 vs Brisbane at Kardinia Park - the first big statement win for our crop of future stars came against the reigning three-time premiers. We'd had several years of mediocre results before 2004, hadn't won a final since 1995 and also had a 0-10 record against the merged Brisbane/Fitzroy Lions team
2007, R6 vs Richmond at Docklands - as fun as the game itself was to watch, it's best known as the match that kickstarted all the success that followed
2011, R24 vs Collingwood at MCG - a near-100 point win against the minor premiers right before the finals helped to set us up nicely to beat them again in the Grand Final. The Pies went 22-0 that year with a percentage close to 200 against the rest of the league and went 0-3 against us, I don't think any other team in history has only lost to the one team during a season and not won the flag
2016, R1 vs Hawthorn at MCG - we'd been written off as finished after missing the finals in 2015 and the Kennett curse was well and truly over as the Hawks had belted us the last several times on the way to their threepeat, but with Dangerfield playing his first game for the club we started 2016 with a big upset win by five goals and ended the season back in the top four, where Cats great Isaac Smith helped us beat Hawthorn again in the first final, putting us into the first of seven prelims in the next nine seasons
Honourable mentions: Beating the Saints in R18, 2004, showing we had our own talented youf to match the highly-rated Saints' youf who had been getting all the media attention. Coming back to win from six goals down against Richmond in R21, 2016, can't say this was a particularly good game but it was an amusing way to end our literal decades of dominance over Richmond before they finally came good in 2017. Coming back from five goals down against Melbourne in R18, 2018 with Tuohy converting after the siren, also one of Hawkins's very best games for the club.
2004, R13 vs Brisbane at Kardinia Park - the first big statement win for our crop of future stars came against the reigning three-time premiers. We'd had several years of mediocre results before 2004, hadn't won a final since 1995 and also had a 0-10 record against the merged Brisbane/Fitzroy Lions team
2007, R6 vs Richmond at Docklands - as fun as the game itself was to watch, it's best known as the match that kickstarted all the success that followed
2011, R24 vs Collingwood at MCG - a near-100 point win against the minor premiers right before the finals helped to set us up nicely to beat them again in the Grand Final. The Pies went 22-0 that year with a percentage close to 200 against the rest of the league and went 0-3 against us, I don't think any other team in history has only lost to the one team during a season and not won the flag
2016, R1 vs Hawthorn at MCG - we'd been written off as finished after missing the finals in 2015 and the Kennett curse was well and truly over as the Hawks had belted us the last several times on the way to their threepeat, but with Dangerfield playing his first game for the club we started 2016 with a big upset win by five goals and ended the season back in the top four, where Cats great Isaac Smith helped us beat Hawthorn again in the first final, putting us into the first of seven prelims in the next nine seasons
Honourable mentions: Beating the Saints in R18, 2004, showing we had our own talented youf to match the highly-rated Saints' youf who had been getting all the media attention. Coming back to win from six goals down against Richmond in R21, 2016, can't say this was a particularly good game but it was an amusing way to end our literal decades of dominance over Richmond before they finally came good in 2017. Coming back from five goals down against Melbourne in R18, 2018 with Tuohy converting after the siren, also one of Hawkins's very best games for the club.
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Great nominations, I think in particular the 2022 Richmond game, which was the game where Stewart was reported for his bump on Prestia. Another game which didn't look that important in our ultimate finishing spot, but at the time, given a certain lengthy stint on the sidelines for Stewart and what appeared to be a brutal 4-5 week run of games immediately after, in the moment it seemed like we simply could not afford to drop that game, having got into a comfortable position.
Tyson Stengle and Jack Henry did their heroics and ensured we had a slight ladder buffer, which would cushion a potential subsequent 2-2 split or similar over the next four rounds and still be in the mix for top four. Instead, we won them all and didn't lose again.
fake tyrone
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Fair enough, but as neutrals my brother and I immensely enjoyed that final round win over Carlton in 2022. I don't think I'd ever yelled at the TV to urge the Pies to get up until that game.
Dirty Bird
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If I were in the media, I wouldn't want to be bringing up a game where the opposition team had a staff member have a heart attack on the bench.
RIP Wally Jackson
Dirty Bird
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In regards to your last one about how important getting over Richmond in 22 was.
I think I also read that Rd 11 2007 vs Adelaide did the same for you too.
Falchoon
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Saints, I would have the win over Brisbane where Troy Schwarze kicked the winner, not long after Aussie Jones' point.
Biggest roar I've heard at the footy.
Biggest roar I've heard at the footy.
Yep, that night changed everything. I remember as I was leaving home and Mrs Ghost wishing me "good luck for tonight".
It stopped me in my tracks, made me have a little moment of reflection, before saying back to her. "Oh, we don't win tonight. We don't win these, that's not why I'm going. I have no concept of what winning this would look like."
You're totally right. That match rewired our neurons at Tigerland.
The Showdown in 2015 after Phil Walsh died was epic. That's my choice for Adelaide. Largest AFL crowd at Adelaide Oval. Closest Showdown margin at the time. A Port Adelaide home crowd with thousands of Crows supporters watching from nearby Elder Park on the banks of the Torrens.
Crows had found their mojo under Phil Walsh but were still very much in the initial stages of building something special when Walsh was murdered on the eve of the match against Geelong in Round 14, which was abandoned. The Crows, as expected, fell out of the top 8 when they fell to West Coast in Perth for their first game back. It was a feat to just take the field and the emotional toll could be seen on the players at the conclusion of that game. The very respectful West Coast crowd acknowledged superbly the efforts of the players to take the field and compete again.
The game the next week against Port had Port go in heavy favourites. Their season was on the line. They'd beaten Adelaide in the previous Showdown earlier in the year. In the end, this game, if it went the other way, would've seen Port replace the Crows in the Finals.
Instead, we saw everything that Phil Walsh had taught them come to fruition. It was the beginning of Walsh's vision for his footy club. The Crows started well to get out to a 5 goal lead. Port would claw their way back, but when Eddie Betts kicked the Crows out to a 6 goal lead half way through the 3rd, it seemed the Crows might finally break free. But Port came back, again, and it took football strength from two of the Crows strongest, firstly by Tex to get a handball away to Thompson, who was strong enough to kick under pressure from inside 50 to put the Crows up by 5 goals on the 3/4 time siren. But of course, Port would come back again, and when Robbie Gray put Port 3 points away with a minute left, it seemed likely Port would get in front for the first time in the game, when it really mattered.
But, the Crows held on. The Crows went 6-2 from this game on and won an Elimination Final against the Bulldogs. Their premiership window was 2016 and 2017, but ultimately they weren't quite good enough and couldn't hold on to all the people they needed to take them to the top. What could've been? It was a bloody good effort and some of the footy played in 2016 and 2017 was as good as you'd see.
Crows had found their mojo under Phil Walsh but were still very much in the initial stages of building something special when Walsh was murdered on the eve of the match against Geelong in Round 14, which was abandoned. The Crows, as expected, fell out of the top 8 when they fell to West Coast in Perth for their first game back. It was a feat to just take the field and the emotional toll could be seen on the players at the conclusion of that game. The very respectful West Coast crowd acknowledged superbly the efforts of the players to take the field and compete again.
The game the next week against Port had Port go in heavy favourites. Their season was on the line. They'd beaten Adelaide in the previous Showdown earlier in the year. In the end, this game, if it went the other way, would've seen Port replace the Crows in the Finals.
Instead, we saw everything that Phil Walsh had taught them come to fruition. It was the beginning of Walsh's vision for his footy club. The Crows started well to get out to a 5 goal lead. Port would claw their way back, but when Eddie Betts kicked the Crows out to a 6 goal lead half way through the 3rd, it seemed the Crows might finally break free. But Port came back, again, and it took football strength from two of the Crows strongest, firstly by Tex to get a handball away to Thompson, who was strong enough to kick under pressure from inside 50 to put the Crows up by 5 goals on the 3/4 time siren. But of course, Port would come back again, and when Robbie Gray put Port 3 points away with a minute left, it seemed likely Port would get in front for the first time in the game, when it really mattered.
But, the Crows held on. The Crows went 6-2 from this game on and won an Elimination Final against the Bulldogs. Their premiership window was 2016 and 2017, but ultimately they weren't quite good enough and couldn't hold on to all the people they needed to take them to the top. What could've been? It was a bloody good effort and some of the footy played in 2016 and 2017 was as good as you'd see.
Toump Ass
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Our match against geelong in the '21 prelim was a cakewalk.Beating them by a kick after the siren in kardinia park in round 23 after being near 40 points down was massive though.
For me our Anzac eve game against Richmond was the best win outside of the grand final. Felt like a passing of the torch for me.
For me our Anzac eve game against Richmond was the best win outside of the grand final. Felt like a passing of the torch for me.
