Micro Noises - Issue 12
Season draws to a close
Statistical tragedy was averted at almost the last possible moment at the weekend. We were staring down the barrel of our first season without a drawn match since 2004. But in the 197th match of a 198-game season, Richmond and Port Adelaide, two sides that have given so little to so many over such a long stretch, came to the rescue with a 106-106 tie at the MCG. The draw was the 150th in VFL/AFL history, the first between these two sides, and the first to finish with a 106-all score-line.
The most common "draw score" is 79, which has come up seven times, the most recent of which was in fact the last draw before Sunday's, the Round 4, 2011 match between Carlton and Essendon. There have been six 66-all and 76-all draws.
Sunday's draw was also the fifth consecutive one at the MCG, a run which started with the drawn 2010 Grand Final. There have been 27 draws in total at the MCG, 16 at Princes Park and perhaps somewhat surprisingly, 13 at Brunswick St Oval, Fitzroy's old home ground which last saw a home match in 1966. No other ground has recorded more than nine.
And finally, the draw was the first ever to occur in Round 23, not so surprising considering there have only been five Round 23s in VFL/AFL history.
Here's the "drawn match round" ladder:
Round No. | Number of Draws |
---|---|
2 | 13 |
1 | 11 |
5 | 11 |
4 | 10 |
16 | 10 |
12 | 9 |
7 | 8 |
14 | 8 |
3 | 7 |
8 | 6 |
15 | 6 |
9 | 5 |
10 | 5 |
11 | 5 |
18 | 4 |
20 | 4 |
13 | 3 |
17 | 3 |
SF | 3 |
GF | 3 |
19 | 2 |
22 | 2 |
21 | 1 |
23 | 1 |
QF | 1 |
PF | 1 |
24 | 0 |
Omen alert
Here's a bunch of reasons that Hawthorn is likely to win this year's flag:
* The Hawks finished on top of the ladder. The last time they did so was 1989, and they went on to take the flag in that season.
* Hawthorn's win over West Coast was the first VFL/AFL match to end with a 95-70 score-line since 1989, a Hawthorn premiership year.
* They have a pretty good number 23 in their team, as they did in '89.
* The last team to finish on top with 17 wins was West Coast in 2006. They won the flag by one point.
Cyril jump(er)s ahead
A cameo last-quarter appearance as the substitute was all it took for Cyril Rioli to claim a record not many would be aware of last Friday night. Cyril's game was his 103rd for the Hawks, all of those in the number 33. Rioli has now worn the number 33 on more occasions than any other Hawthorn player, with his game last Friday taking him past Kris Barlow's previous record of 102 games.
Cyril has a fair way to go to claim the AFL record for the most games wearing number 33. That belongs to David Cloke, who wore the number for 290 of his 333 games. (It's a shame not all of his 333 games were in the number 33!) While Cloke holds the record, he set that across two clubs, Richmond and Collingwood. The record for most number of games wearing number 33 at a single club belongs to another Tiger - Matthew Knights, who wore that number in all of his 279 games.
First among unequals
We love a bit of irony here at Micro Noises, so we note with some satisfaction that in the week we registered the year's first "first among equals" match for 2012 (see Season draws to a close above), there were no other first-time score-lines in Round 23, the first full round since early May that no "first among unequals" were recorded.
A loser's - sorry, user's - guide to finishing ninth
We all love having a laugh about Richmond's mortgage on finishing ninth each year (well all of us other than Tigers' fans that is) but the truth of the matter is that the tide is beginning to turn. Although Richmond still hold the record for most ninth-placed finishes since the top eight was introduced (six times), the last few seasons have seen Hawthorn, St Kilda and North Melbourne start to make up some ground. The Hawks have finished ninth three times, and the Saints and the Kangaroos have done so twice. Melbourne, Port Adelaide, Collingwood, Geelong, Fremantle and the Western Bulldogs have occupied ninth place once each.
Of course now that there are 18, rather 16 than teams in the AFL, one could argue that 10th is the new 9th (10/18 = 0.555 and 9/16 = 0.563), in which case we can perhaps see why Richmond decided to draw with, rather than beat, Port Adelaide last Sunday. A win would have in fact seen them finish 10th.
Formal fallacy of the week
Congratulations to West Coast and Fremantle who have both made it to this year's finals. It's the third time the Eagles and the Dockers have made it to the top eight in the same year, the other two being 2003 and 2006. Interestingly (at least to us), in all three years the Dockers and Crows have made it to the finals together, Adelaide, Collingwood and Sydney have also booked berths in the top eight. There have been years (2007 and 2008) in which the Crows, Magpies and Swans have all made the finals without the Eagles and the Dockers making it, but not the other way around. All of which suggests that Adelaide, Collingwood and Sydney can make the finals without the help of West Coast and Fremantle but the Eagles and Dockers cannot make it to the top eight without the assistance of the Swans, Crows and Magpies.
Postcode of the week
Hawthorn's win over West Coast last Friday night was in no small way due to the first quarter efforts of the Hawks and in particular Buddy Franklin, who kicked four of Hawthorn's first-quarter goals. So it was somewhat fitting that when the quarter-time siren went, Hawthorn led 7.1 to 1.3. A quick visit to the Australia Post website tells us that 7113 is the postcode of - where else? - Franklin.
Ridiculous footy anagram of the week
Congratulations to the winner of the 2012 AFL Rising Star award, Adelaide's Daniel Talia. Talia's had a fine season and by all accounts is meticulous in his preparation, as this comment from Crows List Manager David Noble attests: "He's one of the best-prepared junior players I've ever seen and leaves nothing to question." That's probably not surprising when you consider that DANIEL TALIA is an anagram of NAIL A DETAIL.
Comments
Rhett Bartlett 7 September 2012
Worth nothing Knights also wore #29 for a quarter of football.
Andrew Gigacz 7 September 2012
Did he? How so?
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