Micro Noises 73: Fixture fun
Will 2015 take us back to the 70s?
With Hawthorn winning three flags in the last decade and North Melbourne looking as though it is about to become a premiership threat, footy has been transported back to the 1970s. Now the AFL have taken that theme one step further. The release of the 2015 fixture reveals that the season will open with a match between Carlton and Richmond on Thursday, April 2nd. This will make it the first time since 1978 that a VFL/AFL season has started in April. That season also saw Essendon take on the Swans in the opening round, just as it will next year. So folks, put your money on a Hawthorn versus North Melbourne Grand Final in 2015, with the Hawks to triumph by about three goals.
Can you be more specific?
Well, yes, since you asked. While it's the first time since 1978 a VFL/AFL season has started in April, we must go back another year - to 1977 - to find the last season which began on the second day of April. Based on that match up, it might be best to revise your bets and put your hard-earned on Hawthorn being knocked out by North in a Preliminary Final next year, then meeting Collingwood in a Grand Final which will end a draw, with the Kangaroos to take out the replay.
Can you be even more specific?
If you insist. We could go back to the inaugural season of the VFL in 1897 and we would not find a season which started on Thursday, April 2nd. And since it's never happened before, perhaps that's an omen that a team that's never won a flag will salute in 2015. In which case, take a small cut of the cash you were going to outlay on Hawthorn, then North Melbourne, and have a little flutter on a Fremantle, Gold Coast or GWS premiership.
Doggie déjà vu
The Western Bulldogs will front up against the West Coast Eagles in round one of the 2015 season, just as they did this year. The two Ws also met in the opening round of 2012 making it thrice in four years that they have locked horns to kick off the season. The pair also got the 2004 season underway, making it four round-one meetings in a dozen years. The signs aren't great for the Dogs, with the Eagles winning by seven points in 2004, 49 points in 2012 and 65 points in 2014.
Since the VFL became the AFL in 1990, the Dogs have been inclined to meet some teams far more often than others in the season-opener. In particular, the AFL seems to be fond of the Doggies starting off a year against a side that is based west of the ground once known as Western Oval. As well its four meetings against the Eagles in that period, the Dogs have played round-one matches against Adelaide five times, and Fremantle and Geelong twice. The Bulldogs' other round one appearances in the AFL era have been against Collingwood four times, Brisbane three times, Richmond and St Kilda twice each and Essendon and Sydney once.
The Dogs have not kicked off a season against Carlton since 1989, against Fitzroy since 1980, against Melbourne since 1979 and against North Melbourne since 1978. Incredibly, we have to turn the clock back more than 50 years to uncover the last round-one meeting of the Bulldogs and Hawthorn. It was in 1962, when Footscray extracted a small amount of revenge on the Hawks, who had beaten them in the 1961 Grand Final, by defeating them by 33 points.
Round one regulars and irregulars
Another regular round-one favourite fixture - Carlton versus Richmond - returns in 2015, making it eight times in the last nine seasons that the Tigers and Blues have confronted each other to start the year. For Gold Coast, the season opening could be known as Diversity Round, with the Suns having had a bye in its inaugural season in 2011, and then met Adelaide (2102), St Kilda (2103), Richmond (2014) and now Melbourne in round one. Fellow AFL newcomers GWS will meet a team other than Sydney for the first time, but will still kick off 2015 against a team beginning with S. The Giants will play St Kilda at Etihad Stadium.
Hawthorn and Geelong will meet on Easter Monday, as has become a tradition in recent times, and we need only go back to 2013 to find the last such round-one instance. Fremantle and Port Adelaide will commence a season as opponents for the first time since 2007, while Sydney and Essendon will do so for the first time since 2006 and Adelaide and North Melbourne for the first time since 2004.
Collingwood will play the Brisbane Lions for the first time ever in round one, although the Magpies did play the Brisbane Bears in round one, 1988 and played their first match of 1992 against the Bears in round two after starting the season with a bye.
Mystery team solved
Our Micro Noises 72 mystery team comprised 22 players all linked by a common thread and your task was to work out what that thread was. How did you go? Congratulations to Damo Berry on Twitter for being the first to identify all players as having played for two different clubs within the same season.
The team was:
B: | Mick Malthouse (StK/Rich) | Les Abbott (Coll/Carl/Rich/Melb/SM) | John Jenkins (Rich/NM) |
HB: | Wels Eicke (StK/NM) | John Scarlett (Geel/SM) | Artie Freeman (Coll/Fitz/Ess) |
C: | Greg Wells (Melb/Carl) | Geoff Raines (Rich/Coll/Ess/Bris) | Charlie Cameron (NM/Fitz) |
HF: | Russell Greene (StK/Haw) | Jack Wrout (NM/Carl) | Bernie Harris (Fitz/Bris/StK) |
F: | Paul Sarah (Geel/Rich) | Phil Baker (NM/Geel) | Alex Ruscuklic (Fitz/Carl) |
R: | Harry Neill (SM/Foots/StK) | Alan "Bull" Richardson (Rich/SM) | Tommy Lahiff (Ess/SM/Haw) |
Int: | Alan Dale (Ess/StK) | Stuart Magee (SM/Foots) | Allan Sidebottom (StK/Fitz) |
Sub: | David Johnston (Ess/Fitz) | |
Ridiculous footy anagram of the week
Despite declaring that he would never take on the job again, "Rocket" Rodney Eade will take the reins at Gold Coast in 2015 and attempt to win his first AFL flag as a coach. Eade, who lost his most of his hair on his journey from player to coach, joins the Suns after being dumped by the Bulldogs in 2011 and released from his current role at Collingwood, ending his Magpie era. Appropriately then, RODNEY EADE, EX BULLDOGS AND MAGPIES is an anagram of ERA END - SUNS EMPLOY BALD AXED DOGGIE.
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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