The Aussie Rules home and away season is done and dusted for another year. There’s still plenty to be excited about though, because it means that footy finals are upon us again. It’s what our teams have been working towards all year and whether yours made the final eight or not, there’s bound to be some exciting footy to watch over the next few weeks."
Rather than give you yet another subjective run down of the best Grand Finals, we thought we’d look at some of the finals games that, we believe, ended up being better than that year’s Grand Final.
2019
Unless you’re a Richmond fan, the contest of the 2019 Grand Final was one of the worst in recent history. The Tigers absolutely annihilated the GWS Giants and neutrals watching at home were bored for the first time in a long time. In fairness, during that final’s series, the Tigers steamrolled all teams in their direct path, beating Brisbane 112-65 in week 1 and then Geelong 85-66 in week 3.
But if the Giants had kept the form of their preceding finals games, the 2019 Grand Final would’ve been much a more exciting match to watch. In week two they faced Brisbane in a very close game which they won by only 3 points. In week 3, they fought off a late surge from Collingwood to win by 4 points. Both these games were so exciting, that even neutral fans could hardly wait to see them in their first Grand Final. If only we’d known… but then hindsight is always perfect vision.
2017
The 2017 Grand Final between Richmond and Adelaide was exciting enough but really only until Half Time. Richmond dominated all through the second half and beat the Crows 108 to 60.
In week one of the 2017 finals series though, came the sort of game that is the envy of many a Grand Final. The elimination final between 5th placed Port Adelaide Power and 8th placed West Coast Eagles was very much a game of two halves. The underdog Eagles were very strong in quarter one and for much of quarter two before Port found their mojo and pushed hard for the second part of quarter two and for all of quarter three. When Port took the lead early in the fourth quarter, West Coast got their wake-up call and quickly found two goals to put themselves two points in front halfway through the fourth quarter. The final 15 minutes of quarter four was an arm-wrestle between to the two teams. Port broke through the Eagles defence twice but only managed to put two behinds on the scoreboard so that when the final siren rang the scores were tied to 60 points apiece. This was the first drawn finals match since the drawn Grand Final of 2010 and was to now be decided in Extra Time. Port dominated Quarter five and looked like running away with it, but the Eagles clawed back again in Quarter six, this time managing to hold the Power off to maintain their two-point lead and emerge as victors 10.16.76 to 12.6.78. As a neutral, this was the most thrilling match of 2017 and would’ve made for a truly spectacular Grand Final!
2014
From start to finish, Hawthorn wiped the floor with Sydney in the 2014 Grand Final. We reckon they wanted Buddy to have a taste of what he was missing out on by leaving them, with probably a bit of pay back for 2012 thrown in for good measure 😉.
In the week prior, the Hawks met Port Adelaide in a Preliminary final. The game was pretty evenly matched for the first half before Hawthorn began to storm home in the fourth quarter. But the Power weren’t going to leave quietly and the second half of the fourth quarter saw them pull back Hawthorns 4 goal, ¾ time lead to just 4 points. With a minute and a half remaining, Port took a mark inside their 50 but the resulting attempt at goal fell short and Hawthorn made it into their third consecutive Grand Final, which would become win two of their three-peat.
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2010
The 2010 drawn Grand Final wasn’t much fun for anyone. If we take Collingwood out of the picture though (let’s face it, they’ve lost more Grand Finals than they’ve won so who cares if they finished top of the ladder that year?). With the Pies gone, you have Geelong and St Kilda at the top of the ladder. Their match-up occurred in week 1 of finals that year. It was a close game and those final two minutes carried a lot of controversy. With one minute remaining, Geelong kicked a goal which would have put them in front by 2 points. But the umpire didn’t pay the goal! He instead awarded a free kick to St Kilda, for a push in the back. St Kilda were able to hold on for the final minute and take the win. Even though that wasn’t the Grand Final, they’re still arguing about that decision.
2007
Geelong defeated Port Adelaide by a mind-numbing 119 points in the 2007 Grand Final kicking 24.19.163 to 6.8.44. But in week one, Hawthorn versus Adelaide ended 15.15.105 to 15.12.102. Two stars of the match were a pair of young players just starting their huge careers with Hawthorn, Jarryd Roughead (and those curls!!!) and Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin who kicked the winning goal in the dying seconds of the game (plus 6 other goals in that match). It was also the last game of AFL for Crows legend, Mark Ricciuto’s, who’d announced the month prior that the 2007 season was to be his last.
1995
The semi-final between Richmond and Essendon in 1995 was a game of two-halves in which the Tigers second-half, winning comeback made the match the most exciting finals game of 1995. Much better viewing than the 61-point win of Carlton over Geelong in the Grand Final two weeks later.
1994
The 1994 Preliminary final between Geelong and North Melbourne looked like going into extra time. With less than two minutes remaining Glenn Archer took a mark on the 50-metre arc, took his set shot and… missed completely. Scores were still tied with mere seconds remaining when the “Hand of God” intervened – Gary Ablett took an incredible, one-handed mark just two-seconds before the final siren. His post-siren set shot from less than 10 metres out went through and Geelong made it into the Grand Final by a goal from “God”. A week later, the Cats lost in spectacular fashion by 80 points to minor premiers West Coast. Much like the Giants in 2019, Geelong had played their best match a week too early.
1993
The comeback of Essendon in the Preliminary final against Adelaide in 1997 made that match the most exciting of the 1993 finals series. The game will live long in the hearts of Bombers fans but the final 15 minutes of coast-to-coast footy had all footy fans on the edges of our seats, an excitement we still look back on with a fast-beating heart. It was a far greater match than Essendon’s Grand Final win over Carlton a week later.
1988
The 1988 VFL Grand Final was over before it began. Hawthorn finished the home and away season at the top of the ladder, four wins ahead of the second placed Collingwood. In those days, the top placed team automatically went through to the Semi-Final and if they won that match, they were straight into the Grand Final. This meant that in week one of finals the teams finishing in second place (Collingwood) and third (Carlton) would play off in a Qualifying while 4th place (West Coast) and 5th place (Melbourne) would battle it out in an elimination final. The winner of the Qualifying final (Blues) went straight into a Semi-Final with the 1st placed Hawthorn while the loser (Magpies) would get a second chance in a Semi-final against the winner of the Elimination Final (Demons). It probably wouldn’t have mattered which team ended up in a Grand Final against the Hawks that year, the result would’ve been the pretty similar… a total obliteration from start to finish. Hawthorn defeated Melbourne in all four quarters of a most boring (to everyone except Hawks fans) Grand Final.
But in 1987, the two teams had met in the Semi-Final. A much stronger Melbourne outfit led the Hawks for three strong quarters until Hawthorn staged a comeback in the final quarter. We really recommend you to search the internet for the match highlights of this game as the dying minutes were completely thrilling. In fact, we won’t even give away the ending by telling you here what happened back then, we really think you should watch and enjoy it for yourself! Needless to say, it was a far more thrilling match to watch than the Grand Final between the same two teams only a year later.
Honourable Mentions
In a list of great finals games, the next game might just top the list; but we’re looking at finals games that were better to watch than the Grand Final. Therefore, the 2016 Prelim final between the Bulldogs and the Giants didn’t make the list above because of the amount of people that tell us how much they enjoyed watching the Grand Final that year.
The other honourable mention is the second half comeback of the Adelaide Crows against the Western Bulldogs in the 1997 Preliminary final and Tony Liberatore’s “Goal that wasn’t”. It was an exciting game remembered fondly by everyone except the Bulldogs fans. But the Grand Final a week later between the Crows and the Saints was a great game too, with the exception of the final quarter.
Our team here are not particularly old, so these memories only go back a few decades. If you can remember any other matches that we have missed, do please let us know!
