Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

[Macpotata]

Bulldogs on Saturday night. Watching that match I couldn't help but root for the Scrays as many neutrals have done over the years. Bevo and co have been much maligned since winning the flag in 2016 and this was a game that could have restored some belief and good will, for the short term at least. I was willing them on but always felt the Roos would claw their way back and steal the points. The dogs have been that bad of late and the Roos, pretty damn good. The doggies then regained the lead late on and were surely home with 45 seconds to go. They had a player short, and another about 20-30 metres ahead and all they had to do was hit a target and the game was over. What do they do next, kick the ball out of bounds on the full with an unforced error handing the ball back to the Kangaroos. We all know how they ended up. Heart breaking for the doggies, but they blew it. Typical of the season they've had actually and it's happened before earlier on against the Swans. Bevo can't catch a break atm. His boys are faltering and a lot of it is beyond his control. Can only imagine how Bulldog supporters must feel.

Which games have your team just blown through sheer stupidity and bad skill errors? From a Cats perspective Sydney 2005 and West Coast 2006 spring to mind. I'm not just talking big leads I'm talking choke jobs and turnovers etc.

 

[Mofra]

1997 prelim owns this thread.

 

[Harris Specter]

Would have thought the Miracle on Grass would have been your biggest choke job.

 

[MaddAdam]

Pretty much every North game in 2013.

 

[SCRAY72]

Too many to mention. Hence too depressing to mention.

 

[MaddAdam]

Essendon losing to Sydney by giving up three goals in a minute for whatever it was last year was pretty funny.

But then yeah, North have done it waaaaay too many times to pot anyone else.

 

[Blackhawk42]

The game we lost to Essendon a few years ago when Cale Hooker stole the lead with less than a minute to go. A low scoring game where goals were hard to come by saw us 3 kicks in front with not long left. Somehow we were rolled. Incredibly if the game went 2 extra seconds we would have won with by Bruest kicking one through. But alas it was too late. A mate who is an Essendon supporter had walked out of the pub already and returned just in time for Hookers goal. I told him he didn't deserve to celebrate it lol.

 

[tigs2010]

The campaigner game, any game Mundy played against the Tigers, GWS game last year. Dogs game last year.

I could keep going. How long of a post are you guys willing to read?

 

[raskolnikov]

Collingwood on Anzac Day 2009.

 

[beta_condition]

The Hawkins after the siren win, Poppy just had to hold the ball up right near the boundary instead of doing a flying kick trying to score a goal, went cross the goal face and went to the open side of the field which allowed Geelong to go straight up the guts with ease.

 

[Marmozet]

2017 EF.

We went 3 goals up in extra-time, West Coast players were standing there panting heavily with their hands on their hips, but we allowed their old and ageing team to overrun us in such a short amount of time.

 

[Fourthawn]

Never have a team so completely buggered up a match-winning lead and choked as much as Melbourne did in the '87 prelim.
It's remembered for the Jim Stynes brain fade when he ran across the mark but his was just the latest in a litany of unbelievable errors including Simon Eishold missing from 2m out and Graeme Yeats (I think) missing from about 25m out directly in front when there was no-one within cooee of him.

 

[gavaniacono]

Where does one start?
I'm not playing this game any more.

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

The campaigner game, any game Mundy played against the Tigers, GWS game last year. Dogs game last year.

I could keep going. How long of a post are you guys willing to read?

I was at our game at Spotless last year. I cant recall seeing a team lose from an unloseable position like that. Even after giving up a good lead you guys dominated play towards the end.

Maybe losses like that helped to find the hard edge your guys showed in September though.

 

[astro1212]

Where does one start?
I'm not playing this game any more.

Karmichael Hunt knows where you should start.

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

1997 prelim owns this thread.

I own it on VCR.

 

[Rod Stroker]

Bulldogs on Saturday night. Watching that match I couldn't help but root for the Scrays as many neutrals have done over the years. Bevo and co have been much maligned since winning the flag in 2016 and this was a game that could have restored some belief and good will, for the short term at least. I was willing them on but always felt the Roos would claw their way back and steal the points. The dogs have been that bad of late and the Roos, pretty damn good. The doggies then regained the lead late on and were surely home with 45 seconds to go. They had a player short, and another about 20-30 metres ahead and all they had to do was hit a target and the game was over. What do they do next, kick the ball out of bounds on the full with an unforced error handing the ball back to the Kangaroos. We all know how they ended up. Heart breaking for the doggies, but they blew it. Typical of the season they've had actually and it's happened before earlier on against the Swans. Bevo can't catch a break atm. His boys are faltering and a lot of it is beyond his control. Can only imagine how Bulldog supporters must feel.

Keep in mind that they did to us last year. Twice!

 

[gavaniacono]

Karmichael Hunt knows where you should start.

Oh **** me sideways!

 

[Occidental]

Perhaps the single most famous game of Australian Rules ever played. In front of the greatest crowd ever assembled 121,696, Collingwood blow a 44 point lead to lose the 1970 Grand Final.

 

[BirdPerson]

Losing a 50 point halftime lead to the Austin Wonaeamirris

☹

 

[HTT]

R16 2012: Leading (until then winless) GC by 10 points with 34sec to go. Lost after the siren thanks to Karmichael Hunt
R18 2012: Leading Carlton by 2 points with a minute left. Brock McLean kicks to a one on one, clears both of them, goes through. We lose.
R17 2015: Leading by 3 points with a minute to go in an armwrestle against Freo. They kick a point. Houli kicks it in UP THE GUTS, picks out a Freo player who hits up D Mundy inside 50. He goes back and sinks us.
R2 2016: Leading Collingwood by 17 points with 5 minutes left. Concede 2 goals to let them back in. Ump pays deliberate after a clearing kick from our backline. Seconds left, they pump it in, Brodie Grundy roves it and kicks the match loser
R7 2017: Lead bulldogs by 5 goals. Lost the lead, draw back within a kick, Jayden Short gets pinged for the most ridiculous deliberate decision (until Dreamtime a few weeks later), lose.
R8 2017: Trail Freo by 5 goals at 3QT, come back, Bellis puts us up with 21sec to go. Freo haven’t kicked a goal all quarter. Ball goes back to the middle, Freo clear it, pick out David ****ing Mundy again who sinks us after the siren
R9 2017: Lead GWS by 5 goals, still 25pts at 3QT. Let them back in, but debutant Shai Bolton kicks the sealer to put us 8pts up with a minute to go. Score review overturns it due to a faint fingernail by opposing debutant Harry Perryman (?) which I stress was right but **** me how stiff can you get. Giants go coast to coast on the kick in to get the lead for the first time all game and win.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

North vs Adelaide, 35 pts up with 5 mins to go or whatever it was.

Outside of the "Lethal" calculation and we still fluffed it.

 

[sportsmaniac89]

Too many to mention!

Round 6 - Round 10, 2008 would take the cake though. Led at three-quarter time in all 5 games (by varying margins) and proceeded to choke all of them.

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

R9 2017: Lead GWS by 5 goals, still 25pts at 3QT. Let them back in, but debutant Shai Bolton kicks the sealer to put us 8pts up with a minute to go. Score review overturns it due to a faint fingernail by opposing debutant Harry Perryman (?) which I stress was right but **** me how stiff can you get. Giants go coast to coast on the kick in to get the lead for the first time all game and win.

Perryman's still known as "the finger". Even Leon conceded we shouldn't have won that game.

 

[Headless]

Losing a 50 point halftime lead to the Austin Wonaeamirris

☹

Remains one of my favourite ever days at the footy.

For Melbourne, the Leigh Montagna/Jimmy Toumpas game immediately comes to mind.