which of these 2 rivalries is the best?

Geelong V Hawthorn.

Has been great watching them go at it over the years, and this rivalry stretches back to the 80's. I for one think its great that the hawks have built themselves a mental hoodoo over the last couple of years.

Collingwood vs Carlton though.....puts every other rivalry to shame.

Geelong vs Hawthorn. But not by a large margin.

These teams have had more close games that West Coast and Sydney did from 2005-2007. While Sydney have had a streak of 7 games of games decided by under 2 goals in that period, Sydney have dominated since then with only 2 games having a close margin (5 points).

However Geelong and Hawthorn have had significantly closer games in recent history with 8 of the last 10 being decided by less than 2 goals. It's just that all of them have been won by Geelong. They played in the 2008 Grand Final in front of 100,012 people which to me is a special grand final. Because it was the Grand Final in the "150th year of Australian Rules Football." Also both Geelong and Hawthorn are traditional Victorian teams, where as West Coast and Sydney are interstate teams. This puts the Geelong and Hawthorn rivalry over the edge for me.

The West Coast-Sydney rivalry from 05-07 is marginally better atm. If this streak that Geelong has gets to 13+ then I think it's the Geelong-Hawthorn that will claim honours as the best rivalry of the modern era. The fact the Sydney-West Coast rivalry was contested mostly in finals and Grand finals is why I rate it more.

05 QF - West Coast by 4

05 GF - Sydney by 4

06 QF- Sydney 85-84

06 GF - West Coast 85-84

07 R1 - West Coast by 1

So many other close games between the matches I have listed as well....that's crazy!

I'd probably have to say the West Coast and Sydney rivalry. The rivalry between both clubs was just Magnificent. You'd never know which side would win or not. The match was always a 50/50 call, due to both teams being so even. Both played in a Grand Final, Sydney winning the 05 GF by 4 Points, and the Eagles in 06 by a point. Just cannot get any Better than that.

I certainly do miss those days though. Ever since our Era ended in 2008, Sydney just had the wood over us ever since.

West Coast and Sydney because they both had wins and losses against each other. This Hawthorn Geelong rivalry, whilst historically very interesting, has been all one way traffic in Geelong's favour since Hawthorn last won in 2008.

I believe Sydney vs West Coast due maybe because I live in Sydney but just because I think that 2 years in a row it was a great battle each team taking 1 each

The rivalry between Cats and Hawks goes back to 1963

The Hawks were struggling in the Grand Final and deliberately decided to set out to injure some Cats stars of the day. The Cats won that one of course.

Stupidly the Cats did a bit of the same and lost that one in 1989 - only nearly winning it when they decided to play the ball instead of the man.

Then of course a lot of Cats are still dirty on the tactics used in the 08 GF but really it was inaccurate kicking and poor efficiency that cost us that game.

I think the longevity of that rivalry puts it front of the West Cost-Sydney one (which is still good - you can count on good games with either match up really)