Is anyone prepared to…

[Testekill]

Patton and Cameron laughing in Boyd's face when Lobb outmarked him in the goal square is retrospectively a highlight, just for the way the big s?!*-eating grins were wiped off not long after.

It's a shame that Cameron won a premiership for Geelong, would have been happy to see him retire without ever winning one.

[Grantysghost]

Patton and Cameron laughing in Boyd's face when Lobb outmarked him in the goal square is retrospectively a highlight, just for the way the big s?!*-eating grins were wiped off not long after.

Oh god yeah what flogs.

[Bulldog Joe]

There are so many highlights that it is hard to rank them.

Tory Dickson juggled mark and goal on Heath Shaw with Shaw trying to blame everyone else.
Clay Smith roving the ruck contest to goal with Heath Shaw trying to blame everyone else.
Clay Smith barreling Griffen after a brilliant continuous play for the Caleb Daniel goal.
Mathew Boyd getting the ball out for the JJ run and pass forward for Bont to run on and goal
Libba passing to Jack Macrae and set shot goal
Stringer passing off to Dickson to kill the last 30 seconds.

What a magic game.

[MrMahatma]

The Stringer kick ==> Dickson point is not top 10.

I would say the Smith goal from Q1 is CLEARLY ahead of it. The Bont fend-off to Cordy goal, the Boyd toe poke...I could keep going. An under-rated one (and I can picture the kick and mark but not the kicker though I THINK it was Liber) was the over the back mark to Macrae with Haynes coming back but too late to effect the spoil...I'm sure that came out of a BTI with Liber having a couple of involvements but can't remember if he dished it off or kicked it.

Yeah, Libba kicked it after following up from a kick he got previously... off the back of a Picken smother. I think Bont maybe taps it to him as he's following up.

That play, like pretty much all mentioned, just show the grit and guts and never-say-die approach that got that team a flag.

[comrade]

Bont goal to hit the front.

To hit the front.

Greatest moment in the greatest game ever played.

[1eyedog]

Mine was definitely Bont's goal in the last. Far from the sealer it was still the moment for me when I knew we were not going to lie down and that it might also be our time. Happened right in front of me I was on the 50 on the outer side.

Following some great tackle pressure from GWS I think Matty Boyd shin kicked it in mid air at HB but hit the ball near the end and it just spun and went a metre or two in the air and JJ was well positioned and read it perfectly on the drop. He ate space and released the pressure valve, crowd starts to heave. Of course it's him sprints forward from the centre of the ground to accept an ordinary but advantageous field kick from JJ and steadies from 25m and drills it. Everything is perfect the goal umpire does the head back thing and the crowd goes nuts. Bont runs right in front of me fist clenched. Think it puts us a point in front. There is a great octocall on this passage of play and every piece of commentary adds to the moment.

It wasn't as gritty or as team orientated as Daniel's goal but it was a moment in our history where Boyd's kick could have gone anywhere but it bounced in our favour. It was nice to get the rub of the green in that instance in the greatest game ever played.

[The bulldog tragician]

Maybe for me, when we somehow repelled the charge from the Oranges in the last two minutes. Sorry to quote myself, but this is something I wrote about it - it was a tribute to Fletcher Roberts….

…..”Another devastating loss was still a real possibility when, with less than two minutes to go, the ball was pumped forward into The Acronyms' forward line. A forward line packed with glittering talent courtesy of the AFL: supercilious Jeremy Cameron, smarmy Toby Green, haughty Jon Patten, and others for whom I've run out of nasty adjectives. Ours was filled with rejects and rookies. Blue collar, not blue chip. Big-hearted, not big-headed.

As the kick spiralled into their star-studded forward line the hopes and dreams of thousands rested with those unheralded defenders all making the right decision, ensuring the wall would withstand the surge. Unobtrusive Fletcher Roberts was one of that wall. Easton Wood made a massive leap, crashing the contest. Danger still awaited; the ball hit the deck. Fletcher Roberts scooped up the ball. In that nightmare parallel universe into which Bulldogs' teams have so often tumbled, he would have fumbled it. But he handled it as cleanly as The Bont. Fletch launched a long bomb out of defence. It would have, in that parallel universe, skewed off his boot, gone out on the full, landed straight in the arms of someone wearing orange. But his kick landed in a pack inside the boundary line. And the ravenous Bulldogs were not going to let that ball back into the Giants' forward line again.

We remember JJ's dash, and Macrae's goal, and Clay Smith's ferocity, but Fletcher Roberts played his part in that night's story too.”

There will NEVER be a greater victory than that one..the fact that even watching a premiership the week after failed to surpass it tells us everything.

[F'scary]

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1: JJ pretty much standing as last defender intercepts a ground ball, breaks the lines, puts it out in front of Bont who controls the ball at full pace with no one between him and goal but the Giants cavalry bearing down on him. He shoots, GOAL, GOAL, GOAL.

[merantau]

Maybe for me, when we somehow repelled the charge from the Oranges in the last two minutes. Sorry to quote myself, but this is something I wrote about it - it was a tribute to Fletcher Roberts….

…..”Another devastating loss was still a real possibility when, with less than two minutes to go, the ball was pumped forward into The Acronyms' forward line. A forward line packed with glittering talent courtesy of the AFL: supercilious Jeremy Cameron, smarmy Toby Green, haughty Jon Patten, and others for whom I've run out of nasty adjectives. Ours was filled with rejects and rookies. Blue collar, not blue chip. Big-hearted, not big-headed.

As the kick spiralled into their star-studded forward line the hopes and dreams of thousands rested with those unheralded defenders all making the right decision, ensuring the wall would withstand the surge. Unobtrusive Fletcher Roberts was one of that wall. Easton Wood made a massive leap, crashing the contest. Danger still awaited; the ball hit the deck. Fletcher Roberts scooped up the ball. In that nightmare parallel universe into which Bulldogs' teams have so often tumbled, he would have fumbled it. But he handled it as cleanly as The Bont. Fletch launched a long bomb out of defence. It would have, in that parallel universe, skewed off his boot, gone out on the full, landed straight in the arms of someone wearing orange. But his kick landed in a pack inside the boundary line. And the ravenous Bulldogs were not going to let that ball back into the Giants' forward line again.

We remember JJ's dash, and Macrae's goal, and Clay Smith's ferocity, but Fletcher Roberts played his part in that night's story too.”

There will NEVER be a greater victory than that one..the fact that even watching a premiership the week after failed to surpass it tells us everything.

I met Fletcher at a Club function in 2017 and said something like, "You could play footy for a hundred years and you'll never do a better clearing kick out of defence."

[jeemak]

Easton Wood hanger - dominating the air and the ground.....but dominating the air. The first five or ten needed aerial dominance and that mark was so so good in providing it. At quarter time they'd have said don't kick it in the air to the ****....

Dickson's dropped mark and recovery for a goal....not sure if it's been mentioned or forgotten. He raked it in, and made EVERYONE on the field in the area look stupid. It's the best goal I've seen in a final.

Jacko's goal. Everyone said it was shinned, but you need to look closely and realise it's just how he kicks. Dead centre.

[bornadog]

Easton Wood hanger - dominating the air and the ground.....but dominating the air..

EW also in the last few minutes of the game, throwing himself at everything to repel the GWS attack. He and Fletcher were determined we weren't going to give this one up.

When Stringer popped the ball in the air to Dickson standing on his own, the roar of the crowd while the ball was still in the air was incredible. It was the moment we all knew we are on the way to the big one.

[merantau]

EW also in the last few minutes of the game, throwing himself at everything to repel the GWS attack. He and Fletcher were determined we weren't going to give this one up.

When Stringer popped the ball in the air to Dickson standing on his own, the roar of the crowd while the ball was still in the air was incredible. It was the moment we all knew we are on the way to the big one.

Agree BAD. It seemed like the crowd started to roar just after the ball began its descent from the apex of its trajectory. I loved that roar.

[Sedat]

It's always nice to reminisce about this game (and the entire 2016 finals series). We weren't the 'best' team that year but we were easily the toughest, most uncompromising and most ruthless when it counted. It personally shits me that we are now 7 years on from this and have barely displayed those same qualities in that time. And the one time we did in the 2021 finals series (which was outstanding for 3 weeks and 2.5 quarters), we squandered our chance to add to the trophy cabinet with 8 of the most careless and insipid minutes of football we've played in our history. I really hope we leave no stone unturned and are absolutely ruthless and uncompromising in 2023 to ensure we don't blink when presented with another chance at success.

[Boots]

I have watched the replay of that game twice or more and there was something I remember so clearly from watching it live that I haven't been able to find int eh footage since.

After Dickson marked but before he kicked, one of the commentators (Darcy maybe?) said something like, "I've been wanting to say this for as long as I can remember, but the Bulldogs are going through to a Grand Final" and the cameraman zoomed in on the bench with everyone hugging.

I swear that - at extreme zoom and quite uncharacteristically - the camera wobbled for a second. I could never decide if the wobble was caused by the cameraman being emotional, or by a sort of vibration in the stand being caused by fans jumping up and down with excitement.

Either way I like the idea that the footage itself was overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment.

[bornadog]

The last two minutes were the most nervous I have been at a game ever.