Mercuri injured himself in the Prelim v Hawthorn.
I think Hird must have hurt himself in the week off after the Richmond game - he went into the Prelim a bit hobbled? I also think he copped a knock to the head in the GF that rendered him basically useless.
From memory in 2000 Quinn smashed the team in the week off before the Prelim to keep us ready. Tried the same thing in 2001 and maybe Hird got hurt.
We had a lot of injuries in 2001 to important players.
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That is exactly it. I knew before the season even started that we weren’t going to win again. There was talk about Essendon being the Manchester United of the AFL (MU had at that point won about 7 of the previous 10 premierships, whereas we had won one). Sheedy talked Wallis and Long out of retiring even though both were clearly over the hill and they managed about 2 games between them for the whole season. We lost every pre-season game because we didn’t give a fark. People talk about arrogance as if it is a good thing. That was arrogance. Arrogance is thinking you’re so good you don’t have to try. It lost us the 99 prelim and it cost us any chance of multiple premierships with a team that could and should have done a whole lot better.
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Compare that preseason with 2000’s we were ruthless
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I’ll never understand why people think this was embarrassing for Hooker.
He busted his arse chasing which in turn made Franklin bust his arse. That made the goals quite incredible. Franklin was a freak and played on tricks on many opponents.
Embarrassing was James Stewart not touching the ball in the goal square against Brisbane, or Ty Zantuck’s set shot at Football Park, or Langford walking off against St Kilda.
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I leapt up and declared Lucas for Norm Smith at this moment.
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IIRC, Hooker was rushed back from a calf injury for this game.
He had previously done alright when matched up vs Buddy
look i actually agree with you, but popular opinion thinks otherwise
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I would agree it doesn’t make one look back at that game with fond memories.
Worst Loss Since 2000 No. 7
Elimination Final 2017
| Sydney | 3.2.20 | 13.5.83 | 17.5.107 | 19.7.121 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essendon | 1.3.9 | 3.4.22 | 5.8.38 | 8.8.56 |
Notes
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Essendon had already lost by 1 pt from an arguably unloseable position against Sydney earlier in the same year and at the same venue (AKA “The Gleeson ragdoll game”).
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Lost the 2nd QTR by 50 pts, resulting in an 83-22 HT scoreline.
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Essendon kicked 4 of the last 7 goals.
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Dean Towers kicked a career-high 3 goals for the Swans.
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Jobe Watson and James Kelly’s last games of AFL football.
Click here to go to worst loss #6.
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Who the ■■■■ is that?
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Also Jobe Watson’s last game.
But yeah, this is 100% top 10 worthy. That second quarter was brutal.
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Flew over for that game and walked out at half time. Went next door to Allianz and watched the NRL final between Manly and Penrith and then went back to my hotel. Had a red eye home the next morning and was still fuming
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How could I forget? Will add now.
First qtr was good. Ambrose gave Buddy a corkie. Daniher took a specie. I thought: “here. we. go.”
And then we engaged the Essington hyperdrive.
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Wow, I’m surprised this even made the top 50 let alone top 10. Who was expecting anything but a humiliation here?
Oh of course, this is the final that Josh Begley kicked 2 goals in.
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As I mentioned in the post, it hadn’t been that long since we had been extremely competitive in the very same fixture. I expected a loss, but I didn’t expect to be down by 10 goals at half time.
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Yep.
It was another game where you expect some form of resistance to the situation at hand.
Instead we capitulated.
We were lucky to be ‘close’ on the scoreboard at quarter time. But I remember watching the game and thinking we were uncompetitive and well behind.
Then Buddy turned it on in 5 minutes and the game was over. I think Hurley was on him, but that part I can’t remember.
I’m not sure if it’s top 10 for me, but any time you can’t match a quarter time score by the opposition, is an all time low. And failing to match their half time score is still low but just farking embarrassing. They are the easy ones to pick. But to do it in finals is just another layer to throw onto the dross that we’ve delivered.
Most of our losing finals would be the ones I’d lean towards for a top 50. I’d even put the loses against Port in 2002 and 2003 there. With so much firepower, we still managed to kick more points than goals and barely made it to 60 points. It only looks better because Port went on and won a premiership in 2004. Heck, even the Geelong finals loss was disappointing as hell. Another game that was over half time. If it wasn’t for a late rush of goals, that would have been on the top 50 list. I even felt the Bulldogs game was over at half time (I didn’t watch the second half) and even that game we struggled to reach the Bulldogs half time score and we were only down by 3 at half time. Looking back at it now, the only finals loss that wouldn’t make my list is the 2001 GF. The loss to North was certainly a different kind of disappointment.
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Agree with almost all of that. It was hard for me to place/not place each finals loss. I think the 2011 final should have been placed higher in hindsight. I’ve also missed a couple of bad losses, as suggested by other posters, which could easily have replaced some in the 41-50 range.
My feeling at HT of the Dogs final was more so “we’re right in this but probably blew our slim chance”. That it felt to you that it was over probably says a lot about the club’s ability to always disappoint when games get tough, and how proven right you were.
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I actually don’t remember much of the '19 EF vs. West Coast at all. It’s weird. I’d argue it’s one of the most forgettable finals appearances we’ve ever been involved in.
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