Your most dispiriting loss

[Geddy Lee]

2002 Semi Final loss to Adelaide.

I was pretty much numb to everything else after that.

 

[bradrowe#32]

The 1987 Preliminary Final.

Was that the game Eishold shanked that kick in the pocket?

EDIT: Yes, it was.

3:05

[YOUTUBE]a3nzp3ZT_ok[/YOUTUBE]

 

[ioppolo]

it took Ashley Sampi slotting a goal from 50 after the siren just to draw.

I'm pretty sure he was 15 metres out, not 50.

A couple of close losses in 2010 were dispiriting to say the least. The game where JBrown kicked a goal with 5 seconds left after a 50/50 in the back didn't go Mitch Brown's way, a win would've given us a chance to avoid the wooden spoon.

The next week we went to Port Adelaide, were down by 25 halfway through the last in a very low scoring game. We kicked 4 goals, scores were level and we had all the momentum. David Rodan kicks a behind with 30 seconds left and we lose.

 

[tasmanlvr]

I support a dispiriting club who have failed me for 11 years -.-

Right. Probably a TL;DR post but we'll see what you think.

Round 19, 2011 - Geelong V Melbourne
That's the one. 186. I was there, I sat there dumbfounded all the way through the game (which I somehow sat through - I've never ever left a game before the final siren). For weeks I had been predicting a 10 goal loss to the Cats - we were eight down at quarter time and I had never seen a quarter like it in a game. Really that was dispiriting for me - at least the Geelong fans on the long train ride home (it skipped Werribee station - at least it wasn't my stop! - so it had to turn back, stop, then the driver had to return to the front and go again - it really wasn't a good day) were quite sympathetic about it... not so much the Collingwood fans giving me stick at school on the Monday afterwards.

Round 20, 2011 - Carlton V Melbourne
And if that wasn't disappointing enough, the way we were supposed to fight back was almost as bad. We showed no effort from the second quarter onwards. It was depressing. Here was a football club that showed no spirit, no effort, all this for a man who has poured his heart and soul into the club with cancer. Worst couple of weeks in my life.

Round 1, 2008 - Melbourne V Hawthorn
Again, another disappointing game. Thought we started well when we got the first clearance of the match (just about the only highlight really) then everything just went to shit. Hawthorn always demolish us when we play them, they seem to have a huge psychological edge because of this game.

Round 11, 2009 - Melbourne V Collingwood
It looked like we had turned a corner somewhat before this game, we were at least competitive before that, but we were horrible this day. Don't want to go through it much. Nothing worse than losing to an old rival.

Elimination Final, 2004 - Melbourne V Essendon
Tight game, final... it doesn't get worse than that. I won't put the 2002 Semi Final here - practically because we didn't deserve to win for that insipid first quarter display, but we should've won this one. That third quarter we were amazing though, and it hurt to lose.

Round 18, 2009 - Richmond V Melbourne
Yeah, I had the balls to mention this one. My best mate goes for Richmond and I always love it when we win. However this seriously hurt losing after the siren. I thought we performed a miracle when Ricky put us in front, but Jordan McMahon killed off any hopes of a cherished win...

...at least we got Jack Trengove out of it. Never right to support your club to lose though. I was shattered when we lost this.

Round 20, 2004 - Melbourne V Sydney
Goodness me I hate Etihad. And on this night we were shit. Only 11 scoring shots, about 1 in the last quarter IIRC (and about three altogether) and we ended up with 7.4 (46). Insipid game. Summed up our last five weeks of 2004 really.

Special mention...

Round 18, 2001 - Melbourne V Geelong
It wasn't a dispiriting loss, but it was a great win. But guess what? My uncle's car was stolen when we came back. Nothing ever goes right for a Melbourne supporter.

 

[Unfinished]

Just some recent ones,

2009 v Essendon.. it was just torture

2011 Prelim... Enough said.. the way there supporters acted like they had one the flag.. it was so good when the Cats smashed them

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Was that the day Brad Johnson did the dramatic dive thing and toed the ball over the goal line?

Yeah, just as Wellsy was tackling him.

I went absolutely apeshit.

 

[SA1NTER]

No, Milne not getting a premiership medal was definitely Good over evil

Stephen Milne is a better man then a lot of the criminals...err...players that your mob have.

I support a dispiriting club who have failed me for 11 years

I know dat feel bro.

 

[Tassieboy]

****ed if I know which game you are referring to but another dispiriting loss was the West Coast game where Le Cras went nuts. The night where the Bombers just didn't care. And when the final nail was put into the Matty Knights coaching coffin

Nah, it was a good night.

 

[stugots]

Yep, '93 for me as well. Thought we were stone montys to win.

Still to watch a replay of that game.

Oh yeah, and SOS did touch that Long goal.

Good to read all the teary eyed blue baggers in this thread still hurting bad over '93, makes me feel a whole lot better about '99

Oh & nah SOS didnt touch Longys wonder goal, missed it by a bees dick & like all good fullbacks, played the 'oh woe is me' card for all it was worth

 

[stugots]

****ed if I know which game you are referring to but another dispiriting loss was the West Coast game where Le Cras went nuts. The night where the Bombers just didn't care. And when the final nail was put into the Matty Knights coaching coffin

& this was a bad thing how

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

2008 GF followed by 2005 semi final

for H&A it would have to be that eagles lost in 2006

Personally, I wouldn't go with the first two. I think 'dispiriting' should make you wonder why you bother supporting them and whether the players even give a shit. The 2008 grand final and 2005 semi final were painful, sure, but in 2008, it was obvious the Cats weren't going anywhere and in 2005, we were pretty long odds to win the game in the first place, we were never going to win the flag that year anyway and it can't be denied that they had a crack that night.

The Eagles game was genuinely dispiriting, but I'd go with two Carlton losses: The 1995 grand final (had become jaded by four losing grand finals at a very young age) and Round 22, 2001 (0.7 after quarter time; the Milburn cheap shot on SOS; Justin Murphy making it plainly obvious that he didn't want to be there, but we were so bad that he was still one of our best players that year). Truly dispiriting games.

 

[giggler99]

Only one match 2005 2nd semi final S.C.G end off!

 

[MaddAdam]

- Round 16, 2006. Fourteen losses in a row, a hitout with Carlton that was a battle for the spoon... and they have a draw. When Essendon and Carlton are bottom two and can't even beat each other, that's sad.

Happy days.

Seriously, though, is the 99 prelim loss worse for Essendon fans than 96?

Reckon 96 was brutal, more so than 99.

 

[Vdubs]

I hate multiple choice, always have.
1. 95 GF vs Blues. Seeing Diesel kill us was the pits, and it was to be Hickmott's last game for us. Think he was a gun and we were too dispirited to stop the poach.

2. 2008 GF Hawks.

3. Last game vs Carlton, ? 200something. Buddha's last game. Don't think we scored after 1/4 time. Milburn on Silvagni. Absolutely embarrassing.

4. Last game 06, vs Hawks. Again, cues in the racks display by Geelong. Only Mackie and Nathan Ablett turned up to play.

Disagree somewhat with the Nick Bloody Davis game. Swans did us a favour putting us out of our misery before we went any further. We were very depleted by the end of that game.

 

[Freomaniac]

I noticed a fair bit of cats fans mentioning the 2005 semi final loss. Bit of an interesting topic there.

I remember one important thing after the game that was stuck in my head for a week. Cam Mooney broke down in tears after the loss. Any cats fans remember this?

 

[Freomaniac]

Being a dockers fan since 2002 and I have seen my fair of bad Moments. Ironically both were in AAMI stadium.

1. Round 22, 2005. Beat the saints with A Justin Longmuir goal after the siren the week before, Had to beat Port to get a spot in the 8. had a good 1st half and fell away. I was left gutted after the game.

2. Round 15, 2009. My opinion Freos darkest moment. Ive seen some bad games freo played but this was the worst. Kicked 4 or 5 behinds in the 1st half and kicked 1 goal and 7 behinds (13 points) the whole game.

I watched the whole 4 quarters. I was mentally paralyzed the whole game.

 

[Vdubs]

I noticed a fair bit of cats fans mentioning the 2005 semi final loss. Bit of an interesting topic there.

I remember one important thing after the game that was stuck in my head for a week. Cam Mooney broke down in tears after the loss. Any cats fans remember this?

Yes. Loved Mooney for many things, including that. Covered his head by his jumper, wore his heart on his sleeves.

 

[Arwib]

I actually would have assumed the good times since 2005 would have salved that wound for Cats fans, the way Sydney's meek surrender against Brisbane in 2003 was mostly healed by the glories of 2005.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

I noticed a fair bit of cats fans mentioning the 2005 semi final loss. Bit of an interesting topic there.

I remember one important thing after the game that was stuck in my head for a week. Cam Mooney broke down in tears after the loss. Any cats fans remember this?

Of course I do (can only speak for myself here). Loved big Moons for better or worse, following that. When I saw that, just how gutted the players (not just Mooney) were, I actually believed that this group was going to do something together.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

I actually would have assumed the good times since 2005 would have salved that wound for Cats fans, the way Sydney's meek surrender against Brisbane in 2003 was mostly healed by the glories of 2005.

Yeah, like I said, the way the game unfolded, it felt like a typical Geelong loss (the sort of thing that you just expected from a team that lost six finals in a row between 1995 and 2004), but the players' reaction to the final siren was something I hadn't seen before. Probably the first time in my life where I felt that the players actually cared more than I did. So, it was sort of refreshing for me; it just looked like the days of them losing games in that fashion were over. And as for the 2006 season? Well, I just pretend that never happened.

 

[Groggyk]

I think 'dispiriting' should make you wonder why you bother supporting them and whether the players even give a shit.

Totally.

North in the Laidley era copped some massive floggings, none bigger than your mob dished out in 2007, MC ED. That was a fairly shattering experience, but I'd had worse days at the footy, '98 being the obvious one. But tbh, I was pissed off but not demoralised.

That honour goes to the insipid display we put up in the elimination final of 2005. We'd been a middle of the road side that ground out some good wins and managed to roll the reigning Premiers in round 18 to consolidate a spot in the 8.

Coming into the game, I was fairly confidant of toppling Port who were just going through the motions that season after landing the big one the year before. After a fairly even 1st quarter, for the next 3 qtrs Port went bang! 6, 8 & 6. 20 Goals! North managed another 5 for the entire match. 10 blokes had less than 10 disposals. Port finished with 100 more touches of the pill.

To rub salt into the wounds, I had been personally gutted with the Kangaroos administration for a fair while. These guys seemed to be trying to **** a club I had supported since I was 5, as much as humanly possible. I had a membership, but it didn't count for shit with the shareholder structure. No voice, no say, just a "shut up and buy your membership" attitude from the men at the helm of over 100 years of culture and tradition.

When the players had seemingly thrown the towel in, I walked out of that game thinking "**** this, what's the point?" Unsuprisingly we were on the chopping block just a couple of years down the track.

It's the closest I've ever come to giving up on footy altogether.

Totally, utterly demoralised.

 

[Tassieboy]

Happy days.

Seriously, though, is the 99 prelim loss worse for Essendon fans than 96?

Reckon 96 was brutal, more so than 99.

Many will argue we weren't much of a chance against North in 96, but would have been firm favourites in 99.

 

[Rik E Boy]

yup.

'92 was horrendous, really should have won if the team had have possessed a bit more intestinal fortitude - dunno what Blight was playing at putting Bairstow on Peter Matera - then again, to be honest I don't think we had anyone capable of covering him really.

'95 was utterly depressing.

Yep. Both of these and the 2005 Semi but top of the list was the loss against West Coast, at home when we were nine goals up. I had visions of our promising rebuild crashing down around our ears. Absolute Barry Crocker that one.

 

[Valli]

There's been a few that have stood out since the 07 debacle!

Losing to the Lions after being 47 points up mid-way through the third term.
Losing to Carlton after being 30 points up at three quarter time.
Losing to the Lions after being 47 points up, again.
Losing to the yet-to-win that season Richmond on our 140th birthday anniversary in torrential rain.
Losing to the yet-to-win ever Gold Coast after being 40something up.
Then loss after loss where we just weren't even trying, culminating with 138 and 165 point losses to Collingwood and Hawthorn.

However, sometime after conceding 10 goals to the Bulldogs in the first quarter on our home deck in front of me and 12 others, things may have begun to change.

#6kicks6goals

 

[LeighBrownlow]

ANZAC day 2009 by a mile. Not only did Zaharakis kick that goal, but David Hille did his knee in the first quarter, and Josh Fraser still got absolutely belted in the ruck by Paddy Ryder. Just an all round shithouse performance in the biggest H&A game of the year