Micro Noises 29 - How a-draw-able!
AFL's missed opportunity
Micro Noises is not usually a forum that we use for the purposes of criticism but we cannot hide our disappointment at the AFL in missing a massive opportunity last Saturday night. When the siren went at the SCG, with Sydney and Fremantle locked together at 70 apiece, fans and players alike were unsure of their emotions. As neither side had won, the relevant club theme song could not be played. Suggestions have been made in the past that after such games, something like Mike Brady's Up There Cazaly should be played to fill the void and give the supporters of both sides something to sing along to.
And that's not a bad idea, one the AFL should really look into adopting. They still have time. There will undoubtedly be more draws. But on Saturday, the AFL missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to play a song full of relevance and perfectly suited to a game where no club song is played. And what song is that? Well it's obvious surely? Sydney scored 70. Fremantle scored 70. The AFL should have played this classic:
Drawn apart
The Swans and Freo certainly finished level in the "points" column on Saturday night, but had Sydney not been as accurate as they were and the Dockers a little more so, the result of that match could have been very different. The game was one of 11 in VFL/AFL history where the teams have finished locked together, but one side has kicked two or more goals than the other. The most famous of these was the 1948 Grand Final, in which Melbourne's 10.9 (69) was matched by Essendon's incredibly wayward 7.27 (69). Underscoring the old adage that bad kicking is bad football, the Dons went down to Melbourne in the Grand Final replay the following week.
Draws where one side has kicked two or more goals than the other
Drawn again
And congratulations are due to one of the coaches involved in Saturday's draw, Sydney's John Longmire. Longmire will qualify for AFL Life membership, when he takes the helm for the Swans at the MCG this Friday night, by taking part in his 300th official game since his debut for North Melbourne in 1988. The 300 comprise 200 premiership matches as a player for North Melbourne, 25 pre-season matches as a player for North Melbourne, 5 state matches for NSW and Victoria, 57 premiership matches as a coach of Sydney and 12 pre-season matches as a coach of the Swans.
Mind you, as thrilled as we are to see one of the game's true gentlemen reach that milestone, we are just a tiny bit disappointed that Longmire didn't retire after last Saturday night. If he had, he would have qualified for something else, unique in the history of the league. He would have been the only person in VFL/AFL history to start and end his coaching career with a draw.
First on the draw
While the Sydney-Fremantle draw was the 151st in history, it was the first ever to occur on May the 18th. The most common date for drawn matches is shared by two dates that are just two days apart. June 8th and June 10th have each seen four matches tied. So, while many fans believe Good Friday to be the most boring day on the footy calendar, we can state categorically that June 8th and June 10th share the honour of most drawing day on the calendar.
This May be a record
Richmond's win over Melbourne was the eighth match in VFL/AFL history to finish with a final score of 106 v 72. There's certainly nothing special about that, although we did note that four of those eight matches have occurred in the month of May, with the other four being shared amongst April, June, August and September. Again, that's quite interesting but probably not spectacularly unusual either. What really caught our eye when glancing through the list of 106 v 72 games was that two of them were registered in the same round.
Adelaide 16.16 (106) defeated Melbourne 10.12 (72) in Round 10 Friday night match in 1991. Two days later West Coast beat Sydney in a game that boasted exactly the same scoreline. The same scoreline being registered in two matches in the same round must surely be a rarity. In fact, we're not even sure if it's happened in any other round. Rest assured, though, we intend to find out. Stay tuned.
Anagrammatic postcode of the week
The old adage says that "the scoreboard doesn't lie". But the numbers next to Fremantle on the scoreboard at quarter time and half time on Saturday night had us wondering about that. The Dockers were 3.6 at the first change and 3.8 at the long break and 3638 is the postcode of YIELIMA, which is an anagram of I MAY LIE.
Micro Noises is Andrew Gigacz's regular, quirky look at all things footy. The name Micro Noises is an anagram of Enrico Misso, who played one game for St Kilda in 1985. He remains the only Enrico and the only Misso to have played footy at the highest level.
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