Years in which we've beaten the eventual premier (AFL era)

[Waltzing St Kilda]

In the home-and-away season, that is.

1991
1992
1995
2003
2005
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2017
2020
2022
2024 (if any of Sydney, Geelong or Carlton win the flag)

Special mention to 1999, in which we lost to North Melbourne by 2 points (at the SCG!), but only because Pagan was using his runner as a sort of 19th man.

[Beno88]

We didn't beat Geelong in 2011, we lost to them twice, by 1 and 28.

1992, 1995 and 2017 stand out for me, as we didn't just beat the eventual premiers, we flogged them.

[mr six o'clock]

2016
We beat the bulldogs

[Beno88]

This post got me thinking about our AFL era record vs the reigning premiers. Not bad overall, very good of late, although it does help that each premier seems to end up with a hangover these days.

No reigning premier has won a final since West Coast in 2019.

1992 - Defeated Hawthorn twice, by 10 & 75
1994 - Defeated Essendon twice, by 14 & 10
1997 - Defeated North Melbourne twice, by 54 & 31
1998 - Defeated Adelaide by 22
2003 - Defeated Brisbane by 5
2004 - Defeated Brisbane by 1
2006 - Defeated Sydney by 2
2007 - Defeated West Coast by 23
2009 - Defeated Hawthorn by 25
2010 - Defeated Geelong twice, by 24 & 4
2020 - Defeated Richmond by 26
2021 - Defeated Richmond by 40
2023 - Defeated Geelong by 33
2024 - Defeated Collingwood by 15

Honourable mentions to 1991 when we drew with Collingwood, and 1996 when we didn't beat Carlton in the H&A season, but we pumped them in a memorable Ansett Cup Grand Final.

[Waltzing St Kilda]

Edit

[Waltzing St Kilda]

In the home-and-away season, that is.

1991
1992
1995
2003
2005
2008
2009
2010
2012
2016
2017
2020
2022
2024 (if any of Sydney, Geelong or Carlton win the flag)

Special mention to 1999, in which we lost to North Melbourne by 2 points (at the SCG!), but only because Pagan was using his runner as a sort of 19th man.

EDITED THANKS TO INPUT ABOVE

[King Max]

We have not lost to the eventual wooden spooner in Australia this century. (Collingwood '99)

[Scollop]

We have not lost to the eventual wooden spooner in Australia this century. (Collingwood '99)

I see what you did there Very clever

Hmmmmm....We've played games in New Zealand and China

Does Tassie count as 'outside' Australia?

Edit. I worked it out with the help of Google
We lost to Carlton in the game in Wellington 2015