There are AFL Grand Finals you remember for who won them. And there are Grand Finals you remember almost frame by frame. The mark, the goal, the smother, the desperate spoil, the bounce which went the wrong way.
They're the games which seem to compress an entire season's worth of tension into a couple of hours. Since 2000, we've had a remarkable collection of them, the most recent, last Saturday, still a cause for amazement.
So which have been the very best? These are my top 10, judged on drama, quality, significance and, most of all, those moments which still make the hairs stand up years later.
10. 2016: Western Bulldogs vs. Sydney
Perhaps no modern premiership has carried quite the same emotional weight. The Western Bulldogs had finished seventh, won three consecutive finals and arrived at the MCG trying to end a 62-year premiership drought. Sydney wasn't giving anything away, Josh Kennedy monumental through the midfield and the Swans still very much alive deep into the last quarter. But the Dogs simply refused to yield. Tom Boyd, much criticised after his huge-money move from GWS, produced the game of his career, no moment bigger than the monster final-quarter goal after Dale Morris had chased down Lance Franklin. Then Liam Picken finished the job. The eventual 22-point margin was utterly misleading; this was brutal, desperate and tense almost throughout. When the siren sounded, one of football's longest waits was finally over.
9. 2002: Brisbane vs. Collingwood
On paper, this shouldn't really have been close. Brisbane was the reigning premier and packed with stars, Collingwood a young side which had come from nowhere. But on a miserable, cold and wet Melbourne afternoon, the Magpies turned it into a street fight. Nathan Buckley was magnificent and would win the Norm Smith Medal despite finishing on the losing side, while Michael Voss produced one of the defining performances of his career. His response after being flattened by Scott Burns - bouncing straight back up, winning the ball and helping create a goal - summed up both him and the game. Collingwood was still within striking distance late before Jason Akermanis snapped the sealer. Brisbane by nine points, but only after being pushed to the absolute limit. Of the Lions' three consecutive flags, this was comfortably the hardest won.
8. 2005: Sydney vs. West Coast
Not necessarily the prettiest Grand Final ever played, but surely one of the most memorable. Sydney led by 20 points at half-time before West Coast finally found some run and dragged itself back into the contest, the Eagles hitting the front during the final term. Amon Buchanan's goal restored Sydney's advantage, after which the last several minutes became one long exercise in survival. And it all came down to one final West Coast thrust. Dean Cox launched the ball deep into attack, a huge pack gathered beneath it and Leo Barry came flying across the front to take the mark of his life. Seconds later, the siren sounded. Sydney by four points and a first premiership in 72 years. Few Grand Finals have ever had a more dramatic final act, or one so perfectly frozen in time.
7. 2006: Sydney vs. West Coast
The sequel really was as good as the original, in fact a little better. Twelve months after Sydney pinched the flag from West Coast by four points, the same teams returned and somehow produced another finish even tighter. This time the Eagles appeared to have control, leading by 25 points at half-time behind their brilliant midfield. But Sydney, as was its way, simply dragged the game back into the trenches. The Swans kept coming until the final quarter became another desperate battle for territory, every contest seemingly carrying the weight of a season. West Coast eventually hung on by a solitary point, reversing the heartbreak of the previous year. Remarkably, it was the fifth consecutive meeting between these teams decided by less than a goal. Two Grand Finals, five points separating them in total. Hard to manufacture a better rivalry than that.
6. 2009: Geelong vs. St Kilda
This felt less like a football game at times than a heavyweight title fight. The Cats and Saints had clearly been the competition's two best teams all season and in wet, slippery conditions neither was prepared to concede an inch. St Kilda led by seven points at three-quarter time and after losing the 2008 Grand Final, Geelong's reputation was very much on the line. The Cats kept grinding, though, until scores were locked deep into the final term. Then came the moment: Matthew Scarlett's instinctive toe-poke to Gary Ablett, the ball eventually finding Paul Chapman, whose snap finally broke the deadlock. Max Rooke's goal after the siren made the margin 12 points, but that flattered Geelong considerably. This was savage, exhausting Grand Final football, and a contest worthy of two genuinely great sides.
5. 2018: West Coast vs. Collingwood
Five Collingwood goals in the opening 22 minutes threatened to make this another Grand Final anti-climax. Instead, West Coast slowly, painstakingly worked its way back into the contest, drawing level during the third term and setting up a magnificent finish. The Magpies regained the lead through Jordan De Goey and Brody Mihocek early in the last, but the Eagles kept coming. And with less than two minutes left came one of the great Grand Final passages: Jeremy McGovern's intercept mark, Nathan Vardy through the middle, Liam Ryan's courageous grab and finally Dom Sheed marking deep in the pocket. His kick from an absurd angle was perfection. West Coast by five points and a Grand Final decided by a moment which instantly became part of football folklore.
4. 2010: Collingwood vs. St Kilda - the draw
Collingwood seemed to have this in hand with a four-goal half-time lead that should have been a lot more. But Lenny Hayes and Brendon Goddard were colossal in the second half as St Kilda chipped away, the margin down to just eight points by the last change, two goals in two minutes to Hayes and Stephen Milne making it just one point. When Goddard soared then goaled on the stroke of time-on, St Kilda was a goal up and it seemed like 1966 all over again, before Travis Cloke restored Collingwood's lead. The final five minutes were the epitome of tension, a ridiculous bounce of the football eluding Milne and levelling the scores with 90 seconds left. Cue more desperate acts, the siren, stunned faces and the knowledge we'd come back to do it all over again.
3. 2023: Collingwood vs. Brisbane
This was Grand Final football at its most relentlessly entertaining, neither side ever able to put enough distance between itself and the other to feel comfortable. Bobby Hill produced the game of his life, kicking four goals and winning the Norm Smith Medal, while Keidean Coleman was superb for Brisbane. The Lions kept answering every Collingwood challenge and hit the front again during a frantic final term, before Jordan De Goey responded immediately in a classic centre bounce play involving Scott Pendlebury and Nick Daicos. Then Steele Sidebottom, from beyond 50, kicked one of the great pressure goals to give the Magpies some precious breathing space. Joe Daniher's late major reduced it again to four, ensuring the final seconds were suitably frantic. It was precisely the sort of heart-stopping finish which had characterised Collingwood's entire season.
2. 2026: Brisbane vs. Fremantle
Recency bias has nothing to do with it. Simply, there's never been late Grand Final drama like this. Fremantle looked set to finally claim its first premiership when Patrick Voss's third goal put the Dockers 17 points up with 4 minutes 18 seconds remaining. What followed was scarcely believable. Charlie Cameron goaled. Zac Bailey goaled. Suddenly it was back to five points and Brisbane was swarming. Then Logan Morris, quiet for much of the day after Alex Pearce had blanketed him before suffering an Achilles injury, took a strong contested mark and calmly put the Lions in front. Moments later he goaled again and it was over. Four goals in 258 seconds, Brisbane winning by seven points to complete an extraordinary premiership three-peat. Fremantle had virtually both hands on the cup. Brisbane simply ripped it away. For sheer late-game theatre, there hasn't been another Grand Final like it.
1. 2012: Sydney vs. Hawthorn
For sheer quality of football, a see-sawing game and a thrilling finish, Sydney's 10-point win over the Hawks remains the best I've witnessed in the flesh. It's the only Grand Final to feature not just one comeback, but three, Hawthorn in charge early, the Swans striking back, the Hawks surging again and appearing to have it won before one more dramatic twist. Sydney had peeled off eight unanswered goals to lead by 28 points midway through the third term before the Hawks in a spectacular burst slammed on five in just 10 minutes. They looked home after Luke Breust and David Hale goaled early in the last. But Adam Goodes, on one leg, gave the Swans back the lead before Nick Malceski's unforgettable snap for the sealer with only 34 seconds left. An epic.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.
