Glenn McFarlane ranks 10 AFL champions who deserved to finish with a premiership
Nathan Buckley holds the record for the most games played and coached without winning a premiership. But he's not the only legend to miss out on the ultimate success.
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Some of the AFL’s greatest players ended their careers with a host of individual accolades but without the prize they craved most.
From Nathan Buckley to Robert Harvey and Gary Ablett Sr, true champions of the game retired without a premiership medal despite many going close during their decorated careers.
Glenn McFarlane looks at 10 players who most deserved to retire from the game with premiership, but didn’t.
It’s a subjective view, but what cannot be doubted is that these 10 men worked as hard as they could to make it happen — even if the dream did not end in reality.
1. GARY ABLETT SR (GEELONG)
It’s hard to think of any single footballer who contributed as much to one Grand Final and yet failed to take home the medal that seemed his destiny. Ablett kicked nine goals in his maiden Grand Final in 1989 and had to deal with the fact that Geelong fell six points short. He also played in three other losing Grand Finals. Is it any wonder he was so emotional in 2007 when his sons Gary Jr and Nathan, played in the Cats’ drought-breaking flag.
2. ROBERT HARVEY (ST KILDA)
No VFL-AFL footballer has played as many games (383) without winning a flag. It all looked positive for Harvey in 1997 when the Saints appeared to be sailing towards a flag before Adelaide sneaked under their guard. His last chance was in 2008 when in his final season, St Kilda’s path to another Grand Final was blocked by Hawthorn in the preliminary final. Coming off the field he and Shane Crawford embraced him, knowing that the Hawk midfielder was finally going to get his chance for glory.
3. TONY LOCKETT (ST KILDA/SYDNEY)
No man has kicked more goals in the history of football and yet Plugger’s one shot at a Grand Final ended in disappointment. The Saints struggled early in his time at the club before Lockett’s trade to Sydney helped to transform the Swans into a potent force. The full-forward booted his team into the 1996 Grand Final with a behind kicked after the siren but despite his efforts a week later, North Melbourne and a bloke named Wayne Carey stood firmly in his path.
4. Nathan Buckley (Brisbane/Collingwood)
Bucks didn’t just want an AFL premiership. He almost demanded one. That was apparent from his first season in 1993 with Brisbane. It was one of the reasons why he chose to leave the Bears and chase premiership glory elsewhere, at Collingwood. And he came very, very close to achieving his dream, playing in two Grand Finals. In one of them, 2002, he won the Norm Smith Medal. Amazing that the team that beat Collingwood in both seasons (2002-03) was a reshaped, merged Brisbane Lions, who would prove one of the great modern sides.
5. Bob Skilton (South Melbourne)
One of football’s most enduring images is of Bob Skilton welling with tears after Sydney had won the 2005 premiership, ending a club drought of 72 years. Skilton has always said he would trade all three of his Brownlow Medals to have won a flag. And you just know he means it. Sadly, he played only one final in his 237 games — in his penultimate season of 1970. He deserved more.
6. Kevin Murray (Fitzroy)
If Skilton celebrated through the Swans’ flags of 2005 and 2012, one of Fitzroy’s favourite sons Kevin Murray did the same during the Brisbane Lions’ three-peat from 2001-03. Murray embraced the new Lions and developed a great fondness and respect for the merged side and its champion team. The 1969 Brownlow winner only got the chance to play in two finals in his 333 VFL games — both of them losses in 1960. He, too, deserved much more.
7. Matthew Richardson (Richmond)
An all-round good guy who took passion — and sometimes frustration — to extreme levels. His father, Alan, was born in the right era, playing in Richmond’s 1967 flag. But Richo came along at the wrong time in terms of success at Richmond. He was five when the Tigers won their last flag and seven when they last played in a Grand Final. And in his 282 games in yellow and black, he played in only three finals, all of them in 2001. He missed the Tigers’ only other September campaign during his career, in 1995, with a knee injury. Was it any wonder that Richo shed a tear when the Tigers broke their 37-year premiership drought in 2017?
8. Robert Flower (Melbourne)
One of the most graceful footballers to play the game, Flower should have been born in another era. In the year of his birth, 1955, the Demons won the flag, and they would follow suit in 1956-57, ’59-60, and ’64. By the time he played his first game in 1973, the club was a basket-case. As good as Flower would be in his 272 games, he would play in only three finals, all of them in his final season, in 1987. And the end came cruelly when the Demons were beaten by the Hawks in that famous preliminary final.
9. LENNY HAYES (ST KILDA)
St Kilda’s Lenny Hayes came so close to a premiership that he could almost touch it.
So did his skipper Nick Riewoldt.
Both Hayes and Riewoldt had flags cruelly away from them on two occasions.
We’ve gone for Hayes narrowly, due to the fact that his performances in three Grand Finals pushed the Saints to as close to the flag as they had been since that famous 1966 triumph.
He had 24 disposals (18 contested) and kicked a goal in the 2009 Grand Final loss to Geelong. Then he won the Norm Smith Medal (32 disposals and a goal) in the Grand Final draw with Collingwood in 2010, and 22 disposals and a goal in the replay loss.
Riewoldt kicked three goals in his three Grand Finals.
10. Len Thompson (Collingwood)
Flip of the coin between Len Thompson and Wayne Richardson for their near misses in black and white in 1966, 1970 and 1977 (including a drawn Grand Final). Both were outstanding footballers who were invariably in the best during those Grand Finals. If a Norm Smith Medal had been presented in the 1977 Grand Final draw, it would most likely have been presented to Thompson. Both men were incredibly stiff.
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