GREAT GAMES AND MEMORABLE MATCHES
For brief descriptions of each of the above games, click here.
Although, increasingly, it is all too easy to lose sight of the fact, Australian football, when stripped of all its attendant personality fixations, parochialism, and obsession with sponsorship deals, financial viability and 'the corporate dollar', remains essentially a game. Its key historical benchmarks are neither accountants' reports nor tales of the sexual proclivities of its players, but the results of significant matches. While no one could realistically deny that a sound economic underpinning is essential to football's well being, it should not be forgotten that the essence of a good underpinning lies in its invisibility. Similarly, while the individual passions and personalities of the players who comprise a football team undeniably have a bearing on the nature of that team's performances, it is hard to accept that Player A's preference for seafood over steak, or love of golf, or admiration for Michael Jordan, are in any sense relevant to an assessment of his value as a footballer.
Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps in years to come Geelong champion Gary Hocking will be remembered less for his 4 club best and fairest awards and more for the Day He Became Whiskers. If so, I would contend that football as we know it today will have ceased to exist.
Before that happens, and lest we forget, this section highlights some of the many memorable games which illuminate and to a large extent comprise the history of what, at least for a short time longer, remains the finest form of athletic endeavour so far devised by man, Wayne Carey's shoe size or East Fremantle's latest balance sheet notwithstanding.
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Great Games Summary (Back to Top)
| Game |
Details |
| Tassie's First Foray | The first ever match involving a Tasmanian representative team took place on 29 August 1882 at the Upper Cricket Ground in Hobart, when the Tasmanians took on Essendon in front of 3,000 spectators. Read all about it in this article, which is based on a contemporary press report. |
| The First Grand Final | The story of the historic SAFA premiership-deciding match between Norwood and Port Adelaide in 1889. |
| A New Football Power Emerges | In 1896, two clubs, Collingwood and South Melbourne, vied for first place in the VFA, necessitating a play-off. South already had five Association premierships under their belt, but Collingwood had only been playing at this level for five years, and 4th place the previous season had been the closest they had come to a flag. The premiership play-off proved to be both absorbing and highly significant, both in terms of heralding the arrival of a new football power, and in paving the way for the competition that was to dominate Australian football in Victoria for the better part of a century, the Victorian Football League. |
| Tip-Top Roys | With the VFL in only its third season, Fitzroy became the fledgling competition's first dual premiers on the strength of a nail-biting grand final victory over South Melbourne. |
| Fuchsias' Farcical Flag | Mighty Fitzroy against unrated Melbourne in one of the most controversial, some would say absurd, VFL premiership deciders ever. |
| Interstate Football Is Born | The Commonwealth of Australia came into existence on 1 January 1901, and on 15 June that year the first ever interstate - as distinct from intercolonial - football match took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It featured the VFL and South Australia, and involved some truly legendary names from the code's history. |
| Sandgropers Go West With Spoils | Western Australia's first ever ventures into the interstate arena took place in 1904, with a 34 point loss to the VFL in Melbourne, and this game against South Australia at the Jubilee Oval in Adelaide. |
| Norwood's Amazing Comeback | A stupendous come from behind victory by Norwood against Port Adelaide in a match that augmented the already fierce rivalry between the clubs. |
| A Premiership On Protest | The undiluted and, I hope, unbiased story of Perth's first flag in 1907 - arguably the most controversial premiership in top level senior football history. |
| A False Dawn | The involvement of New Zealand in the Jubilee Australasian football carnival of 1908 in Melbourne raised hopes that the game had a genuinely international future. Sadly, this was not to be. However, the Kiwis of 1908 were certainly not just there to make up the numbers, as their performance against New South Wales in the opening fixture of the championships attested. |
| 'Oxygen Versus Beer' | The tale of West Adelaide's first ever premiership success against a heavily oxygenated opponent in Norwood. |
| South End Nineteen Year Drought | The story of the nail-biting 1909 VFL grand final between South Melbourne and Carlton, with the former seeking to end a nineteen year sequence of failure, including several near misses, and the latter aiming to win a fourth successive flag. |
| Port In Perth | Accounts of the great Port Adelaide team of 1910's matches against East Fremantle and a combined WAFL side during their tour of Western Australia. |
| Croweaters Do It In Style | Despite being played in quintessentially Victorian weather conditions, the decisive match of the 1911 Adelaide carnival between South Australia and the VFL saw the home state emerge triumphant in convincing fashion. |
| Essendon At The Double Part 1 | The story of the Same Old's first VFL flag for a decade, claimed at the expense of a dogged but injury-ridden Collingwood side. (Part 2 will follow in due course.) |
| Tricolours Triumph | By securing their fifth flag courtesy of a nail-biting last gasp final defeat of North Melbourne Footscray became the most successful post-1897 club in the VFA. |
| Fifth VFL Flag For Fitzroy | In 1913, Fitzroy became the first club to win five VFL flags. They had to do it the hard way, however. |
| The Invincibles At Play | In 1914, Port Adelaide created history by going through the entire season unbeaten. This article tells the story of one of the Magpies' minor round matches from that season, against South Adelaide. |
| Epic Win For North | When South Australian league football resumed after a three year break in 1919 supporters were treated to a closely fought season culminating in one of the most memorable finals series on record. The challenge final and challenge final replay between Sturt and North Adelaide have been well documented, but the final between North Adelaide and West Torrens, dealt with here, was equally dramatic, and also took two matches to decide. |
| Carnival Clincher | The epic clash between Western Australia and South Australia at the 1921 Perth carnival. |
| Tigers Tame Blues - Twice | Having won their first ever VFL premiership the previous year, Richmond really came of age in 1921 when, against both the odds and all expectations, they beat a much vaunted Carlton combination in both the final and challenge final, thereby creating history as the first team in VFL history to add a back to back premiership to their first flag. |
| Tasmanians Toss Croweaters | A famous win on the Adelaide Oval for a Tasmanian Football League representative side against a strong South Australian combination. |
| A Carnival Classic | The match between the VFL and Western Australia that ended up being the decisive encounter of the 1924 Hobart carnival. |
| Torrens' First Flag | West Torrens' first premiership, won after a hard fought clash with Sturt. |
| Croweaters Crow In Perth | South Australia's first ever interstate match win against Western Australia in Perth. |
| Golding's Greats | A famous, against-the-odds win by Frank Golding's South Australian combination at the almost impregnable fortress of the Melbourne Cricket ground. |
| Saints Edge Home After The Bell | VFL round 17 1928: 6th placed St Kilda at home to 2nd placed Melbourne - an exhilarating game with a dramatic, and highly controversial, finale. |
| Bays Bounce Back | The story of Glenelg's first premiership, won against both the odds and Port Adelaide in 1934. |
| 'The Greatest Grand Final Of All' | A record crowd, two superb attacking teams, and arguably the greatest VFL grand final of all time: Geelong vs. Collingwood, MCG, 1937. |
| South Swamps Port | A spectacular 12 goal third quarter sees South Adelaide home against Port Adelaide in the 1938 SANFL grand final. |
| The Bloodbath Grand Final | Carlton and South Melbourne players celebrate the end of six years of worldwide hostilities by engaging in arguably the most brutal VFL grand final on record. |
| A Bomber Blitz | The first VFL season to be contested entirely in peace time for eight years concluded with one of the best all round displays of football witnessed in a grand final up to that point. The exponents - an Essendon side for whom centre half forward Gordon Lane produced one of the all time classic finals performances. The victims - a plucky Melbourne combination which had gallantly fought its way through from the 2nd semi final only to find itself out of its depth when it mattered most. The winner - football, which proved it was well and truly back, and was ready to face the second half of the twentieth century with renewed vigour and panache. |
| Torrens' Last Flag | During the decade after World War Two West Torrens was a force to be reckoned with, contesting four grand finals, for flags in 1945 and - as described here - 1953. |
| Bulldogs Find Their Bark | The story of Footscray's breakthrough VFL premiership win in 1954. |
| Big Merv's Match | Perth's first premiership since 1907 in champion ruckman Merv McIntosh's last ever league game. |
| Big V Humbled In The Apple Isle | Tasmania overcome the 'Big V' at senior interstate level for the first ever time. |
| The Turkish Bath Grand Final | The temperature soars to 35ºC as West Adelaide and Norwood clash at the Adelaide Oval. |
| Zebras Back From The Brink | The Story of the 1962 VFA 1st Division premiership decider between Sandringham and Moorabbin, a game that produced one of the most spectacular grand final comebacks of all time. |
| The Day SA Football Came of Age | A supposedly invincible VFL combination succumbs to the superior skill and desire of the visiting South Australians at the MCG. (Story by Peter Argent.) |
| Rags To Riches | In 1963 Claremont finished last with just 4 wins from 21 games. Twelve months later, the team completed a remarkable resurgence by defeating minor premier East Fremantle in one of the most exciting post-war grand finals staged anywhere. |
| Gabbo's Run In Vain | The 1960s saw three VFL grand finals decided by margins of less than a goal, and this was arguably the pick of them. It featured an improbable 40 metre gallop by Ray Gabelich, an equally improbable goal from 'Froggy' Crompton, and ended in ecstasy for the navy and red, and abject despair for the black and white. |
| Old Easts Storm Home | East Fremantle secure one of the all time great 'come from behind' grand final wins against Swan Districts. |
| Saints Make Their Point | St Kilda's first and, to date, only senior V/AFL flag, gained at the expense of Collingwood. |
| My Football Nirvana | An autobiographical review of the 1967 interstate meeting between South Australia and the VFL at the Adelaide Oval. |
| Bulldogs Bite Back Part 1 | A semi-autobiographical account of a memorable comeback by Central District against West Torrens in 1967. |
| The Goalpost Final | Wynyard's legendary clash with North Hobart in the 1967 Tasmanian state premiership grand final at West Park, Burnie. |
| A Breeze For The Blues | Reigning premiers Sturt against alleged 'no hopers' South Adelaide at Unley Oval in a hurricane. |
| 'Polly' Says Too Much | Tasmania vs. Western Australia in 1970 at the North Hobart Oval, and sandgroper captain Graham 'Polly' Farmer shoots himself - and his team - in the foot with some guileless pre-match comments. |
| 'Handball, Handball, Handball!' | Ron Barassi's Carlton come from nowhere to overhaul a seemingly 'home and hosed' Collingwood in one of the all time epic VFL grand finals. |
| Vics Too Strong | How the VFL, thanks to an awesome last quarter burst, overcame a strong challenge from South Australia at the MCG in 1971. |
| Cardies Hang On | West Perth vs. East Fremantle on a bleak and wintry afternoon in September 1971, with a grand final clash against East Perth awaiting the winners. The outcome remained in doubt right to the end. |
| North Adelaide's Finest Hour | A Barrie Robran-inspired North Adelaide squeeze home against Carlton in the 1973 club championship of Australia final. |
| A Fitting Swansong | The last ever grand final to be staged at the Adelaide Oval, and arguably one of the very best, with Glenelg narrowly pipping a gallant North Adelaide. |
| A 'Roos-Blues Thriller! | The classic 1976 VFL preliminary final between North Melbourne and Carlton, won in the end by the narrowest of margins, with the losers missing three easy shots for goal in the last three minutes. |
| Revenge Is Sweet | In 1967, Dandenong downed Port Melbourne in one of the roughest, toughest, most rumbustious VFA grand finals ever. Nine years later, the Borough had an opportunity for revenge. |
| Redlegs' Centenary Triumph | An all time classic featuring a Sturt team with only 1 loss for the season, and a Norwood side celebrating its centenary, with the margin at the end of the game a solitary point. |
| Royals Win In Wet | East Perth captain-coach Barry Cable returns to haunt his old club, Perth, which was seeking a 3rd premiership in a row, in a game which saw the players having to contend not only with the opposition, but with some of the worst weather ever recorded on grand final day. |
| 'Roos Edge Home Against The Odds | The TFL's centenary grand final in 1979 pitted warm favourites Glenorchy against outsiders Clarence. Tim Rowland's story describes how the underdogs prevailed against the odds in Peter Hudson's final game. |
| Brilliant Bulldogs | Not a close finish, but exhilarating attacking football at its best from both winners South Fremantle, and valiant runners-up Swan Districts. |
| Bombers Surge Home | Essendon under Kevin Sheedy bag the club's first premiership since 1965 after a roller coaster ride of a match against Hawthorn. |
| Sharks Sink Subi | Arguably the last great Western Australian grand final of the pre-West Coast era as East Fremantle and Subiaco trade blow for blow and goal for goal in a match that goes right down to the proverbial wire. |
| Fitzroy's Last Hurrah | The story of Fitzroy's heroic last ever major round victory, which came against Sydney in the 1st semi final of 1986. |
| Nirvana Lost And Regained | More autobiography: the linked story of the 1969 SANFL 1st semi final replay between West Adelaide and West Torrens, and the 1987 Fosters International Cup qualifying final between North Melbourne and Carlton. |
| First Up Win For Bears | Football is seldom more thrilling than when the unexpected happens. And nobody expected the Brisbane Bears to beat North Melbourne at the MCG in their first ever game for VFL premiership points. |
| Double Header Blues Do For Port | Sturt and Port Adelaide meet at Football Park in front of an all time record minor round crowd, with the losers on the scoreboard actually gaining more from the match than the winners. |
| Thirty Years On | Precisely thirty years after arguably the greatest achievement in the history of Tasmanian football, the state team's victory over the VFL at York Park, came a state of origin win over the Big V at North Hobart Oval. |
| The End Of An Era | The end of an era in South Australia as Glenelg take on Port Adelaide - the 'villains of the piece' in the eyes of many - in the last 'traditional' SANFL grand final before the arrival on the scene of the Adelaide Crows. |
| Cliffhanger At Bassendean | A WAFL minor round clash from 1993 between top side Swan Districts and second placed South Fremantle. |
| Top End Triumph | Aboriginal All Stars vs. Collingwood at Marrara in Darwin: a match which managed simultaneously to celebrate cultural diversity and shared national identity - not to mention providing some scintillating football. |
| The One That Got Away | Geelong vs. North Melbourne at the MCG with a place in the 1994 AFL grand final at stake, and only the mercurial genius of Gary Ablett between the teams at the death. |
| Bulldogs Bite Back Part 2 | The story of another fine comeback by the Bulldogs, this time against Port Adelaide. |
| Lest We Forget | ANZAC Day 1995: 94,825 spectators watch enthralled as Collingwood and Essendon fight out a thrilling draw at the MCG. |
| An Arm Wrestle Under Lights | Strictly speaking, only the second half of this match took place under lights, but it was a veritable arm wrestle all the way as reigning premier West Coast visited Adelaide for this absorbing round 4 AFL clash from 1995. |
| A Meaningless Classic | One of the greatest AFL finals matches of the 1990s, with the only thing at stake for the Bears and Bombers being the identity of their next week's opposition. |