Glenn’s 10: After St Kilda’s shock win, we look at some of the biggest upsets in history
FOLLOWING St Kilda’s drought-breaking win over Fremantle, we look back at some of the biggest upsets in VFL/AFL history.
Glenn McFarlane
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ST KILDA’S drought-breaking win over premiership contender Fremantle last week had us thinking about some of the great upsets in the history of the game.
Here are 10 of the biggest boilovers in VFL-AFL history that rocked the footy world.
1. THE MIRACLE MATCH
Round 10, 1963 - Fitzroy 9.13 (67) d Geelong 3.13 (31)
If Olympic Ice Hockey once had its ‘Miracle on Ice’, then Australian rules football had its ‘Miracle in the Mud’. Given it was more than 50 years ago now, it might not have the publicity of other boilovers, but this has to rank right up there with them. Fitzroy was the bottom-placed side, having lost all nine games to that stage and they were coming up against Geelong, a team that would win the flag later in the season. To make it even tougher, the Lions had lost their inspirational captain-coach Kevin Murray to state duties. Against all sorts of odds, Fitzroy prevailed in the mud at Brunswick St Oval. Fitzroy would not win another game that season, or the season after that. In all they would lose the next 29 matches, but at least they could boast to having produced one of the great upsets in sport on the “day that David met Goliath”.
2. NOT QUITE A CAKEWALK
Grand Final, 1958 - Collingwood 12.10 (82) d Melbourne 9.10 (64)
Former Collingwood player turned media commentator Lou Richards summed up the feeling leading into the 1958 Grand Final - “Melbourne - the hottest favourite since Phar Lap - looks a certainty to win their fourth successive premiership.” The Demons had not only won three straight premierships (1955-57), they had beaten Collingwood in nine of their past 10 clashes, and hadn’t lost a final to them in 30 years. It had beaten the Magpies by 45 points in the second semi-final. The Demons were so confident that they even organised a cake for the celebration, reading “Premiers, 1958, four-in-a-row.” But Collingwood was protecting its own four-in-a-row record. At quarter-time the game looked over, with Melbourne in front by 17 points. As the team headed for their positions in the second term, stand-in skipper Murray Weideman turned to his tough teammate Brian ‘Hooker’ Harrison and said: “Let’s see who we can collect.” The pair put Melbourne off their game, and as the Demons tried to retaliate, the Magpies produced the shock that not even they thought they were capable of producing.
3. GIANT-KILLERS
Round 1, 2014 - Greater Western Sydney 15.9 (99) d Sydney 9.13 (67)
This time lightning did strike in the same place. In one of the weirdest games in modern memory, rank outsiders GWS withstood a lightning strike that caused a lengthy delay in the game and a Sydney side that had been bolstered by the recruitment of Lance Franklin. Truth be known, the Giants were still smarting that Franklin had overlooked them. And the previous year the Giants had lost to the Swans by 129 points. This time around something very strange happened. After the Swans led at every change, Leon Cameron’s team kicked six unanswered goals in the last quarter to storm over the top of their “big brothers.”
4. HERE COMES THE FLOOD
Round 21, 2000 - Western Bulldogs 14.8 (92) d Essendon 12.9 (81)
Essendon appeared to be sailing perfectly towards an unblemished record in 2000 before the perfect storm - or the perfect flood - hit them. The Bombers had won 20 straight games before taking on the Western Bulldogs in the penultimate round of the season. A certain win looked likely. But some canny planning from Dogs coach Terry Wallace, and a clutch goal from the boundary line late in the game from Chris Grant, produced a massive upset win. Wallace produced the “Super Flood” in shutting down Essendon’s scoring chances, with at times 14 of his 18 on-field players locked in the defensive half. The Dogs had dubbed the game “Mission Impossible”, but in true Tom Cruise Hollywood-style, Grant slotted the goal to give his team the lead with precious seconds ticking down. Essendon would not lose another game for the season, winning the rest by 19, 125, 45 and 60 points.
5. TWO FOR THE UNDERDOGS
Preliminary final, 1999 - Carlton 16.8 (104) d Essendon 14.19 (103)
The Essendon-Jeff Kennett double on preliminary final day, 1999, looked to be one of the best multiple bets you could ever imagine. Few teams had been as favoured as the Bombers were that day. And Kennett was heavily tipped to retain government in the state election. But by the end of the day all sense of certainty seemed to evaporate. The Bombers struggled to shake off the determined Blues. Those in the crowd thought it was just a matter of time before Essendon would take control. It looked that way in the dying seconds when Dean Wallis tried to get around Fraser Brown, but was caught. The Blues held on by a point. And later that night it emerged that Kennett’s tenure as premier was all but over.
6. ST KILDA’S FIRST WIN
Round 1, 1900 - St Kilda 10.8 (68) d Melbourne 9.13 (67)
St Kilda lost its first 48 games in the VFL, stretched out across three seasons. So the Saints went into the Round 1 game against Melbourne - the eventual premiers - with seemingly no hope at all. But a stunning six-goal to nil first quarter set up a real chance of an upset. Still, when the final bell sounded, the Junction Oval scoreboard listed the result as a draw. Much later, a subsequent investigation found that the scoreboard operators had neglected to add a behind to St Kilda, which resulted in one of the biggest upset results in footy history.
7. MACHINE MALFUNCTION
Semi-final, 1929 - Richmond 18.15 (123) d Collingwood 8.13 (61)
Someone tried to run a sweepstake on when Collingwood would lose its first game in the 1929 season after the famed ‘Machine’ team won a streak of games early in 1929. The idea was shelved when no one took up the options that the club would lose a game. And the club would win every game of the home-and-away season. Then, out of the blue, Richmond produced one of the great finals shocks by thrashing Collingwood by 62 points. The Tigers went the knuckle and somehow it worked, as the Magpies were overwhelmed. Mind you, it didn’t matter. As part of the Challenge Finals series, Collingwood got another chance. And the ‘Machine’ would gain their revenge with a 29-point Grand Final win over Richmond.
8. BEARS CULL A COACH
Round 10, 1989 - Brisbane Bears 18.10 (118) d Carlton 17.13 (115)
The Brisbane Bears were coach-killers in more ways than one. Usually, it was the sacking of one of their own. But on this day, the Bears and Warwick Capper helped Blues coach Robert Walls get the axe. The Bears were sitting second bottom against a team that had won a flag two years earlier, yet a last-minute goal to Capper produced a memorable win. It would result in Walls’ sacking. Ten rounds later, the Bears produced another massive upset. They were last and beat the top side Hawthorn in a result that stunned the footy world.
9. LION HUNTERS
Round 24, 1991 - Fitzroy 14.15 (99) d West Coast 12.17 (89)
The Eagles’ juggernaut was seemingly sailing towards the finals without a care, having won all but two games for the season. Lowly Fitzroy was on the bottom and needed a win to get off it. Few thought it was possible. But the Lions players did. One bookmaker claimed the players “used their trip away fund money, a couple of grand” to back themselves against the Eagles. At half-time, it looked they had burnt their money. The Lions had only kicked one goal to West Coast’s five. But somehow Fitzroy kicked 13 second-half goals to not only win the match, but also help to derail the Eagles’ premiership momentum.
10. BACK TO BACK BLUES’ BOILOVERS
Round 8, 1995 - Sydney 21.6 (132) d Carlton 8.12 (60)
Round 9, 1995 - St Kilda 11.14 (80) d Carlton 3.6 (24)
Carlton was a colossus in 1995, losing just two games on their way to a memorable premiership. Both came in successive weeks - one against a side in the bottom reaches of the ladder and the other against the team sitting on the bottom. The loss to Sydney by 72 points was a big shock; the thrashing at the hands of the lowly Saints, who were trading at 25/1 before the game, was described by then coach David Parkin as one of the club’s saddest days. Parkin added: “We have gone from being the best team in the competition to the worst in two weeks.” Carlton did not lose another game for the rest of the season.
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