Is it better to make a grand final and lose it, or just not make it at all?

As a Dragons fan, I'm experienced with fine seasons ending in crushing failure. I've had the dubious privilege of watching us lose the 1985, 1992, 1993, 1996 and 1999 grand finals. I saw all but the 92 defeat in person. This was when I really cared about rugby league to boot!

I also saw us lose the 1984 preliminary final, where we lost to a last minute try after Kevin Roberts gave Parramatta 2 dodgy penalties. In truth, this was more devastating than all the grand final defeats except 99. 85 was horrible but wasn't as raw as 84 was. 85 just made 84 worse as we had Steve Rogers then and might have handled Canterbury better than we ultimately did.

I have great memories of every grand final qualifier that we won and then subsequently lost the grand final. They're all among the highlights of my many years of going to the footy and being a committed supporter. Sure it would have been nice to pick up a premiership when my passion was higher (I would have slept just fine had the Chooks roasted us in 2010) but I got a lot of great moments out of those runner up seasons.

Making a grand final is a great achievement and it's exciting! You could win the premiership! Even when I knew we had fuck all chance of winning I was excited we were there. I was really nervous prior to 85, I just had this feeling we weren't going to play well. I felt pretty good in 99. We had the better team, after all. I kept right on feeling good until early in the 2nd half when it was obvious that we had come out badly. That was one of the worst in-game experiences ever because the whole half was a fucking train wreck. In 1985 we knew that the 6-0 halftime lead was probably going to be enough as Canterbury were dominating and had near flawless defence.

 We weren't favourites the other 3 times so I was more relaxed. I had some hope going into 93 because we had been playing so well and we were such a disciplined unit but I was always a bit concerned about the gulf in class. We copped some injuries on the day which didn't help but the opposition were definitely our biggest problem. 

For me, as bad as those losses were, they're still a memorable experience, which is part of the point of following a sports team. The semi final wins you get in the lead up also create great memories. You can't win it if you're not there! 

The last 12 seasons, where St George Illawarra have rarely threatened to make the semis, and haven't come within cooee of the top 4 by and large, have been a crashing bore as a supporter. Granted, I'm nowhere near the committed obsessive I once was, but surely even for the nutcases there's been very little to remember. I still watch and get into State of Origin and the semi-finals, so I haven't lost complete interest in the game and could certainly make more memories should the Dragons ever deign to be a competitive unit that challenges for premierships again.

What about you? Would you prefer to see your favourite sports team being a regular challenger for titles, even if they lose a fair bit? Or would you prefer to avoid the pain of defeat and just poke their heads up every so often to win a title and slump back into painless mediocrity?