Micro Noises - Issue 3

Pies celebrate anniversary with a win

It wasn't mentioned in any pre-match commentary; there was no announcement prior to the game; and Craig Willis certainly wasn't on hand to mark the occasion with a ceremony before or after the game. But Saturday was an important anniversary for Collingwood and the AFL. For it was on that day 68 years earlier, that the Magpies achieved something that's never been matched, before or since. On the 30th June, 1934, in their round against St Kilda, Collingwood kicked 12.12.84 to defeat the Saints' 10.15.75. Certainly, there's nothing unusual about that score-line. But when we delve a little deeper we can see something more special. At quarter-time in this match, the Pies were 3.3. At half time they were 6.6. And yes, at three-quarter-time, they were on 9.9. Which means that Collingwood scored 3.3 in each quarter of that match. What are the odds of a side kicking the same score in all four quarters of the same match? I'm not sure, but they must be fairly long, because in 14,076 games of VFL/AFL footy, it remains the only[1] such occurrence of that phenomenon.

The "6.1" specialists

If you're a fan of exotic bets, you might like to have a little flutter on Brisbane being exactly 37 at quarter-time in their match against Sydney next Saturday night. Why? Because, for the Lions, it seems to be par for the course. When they turned at quarter-time yesterday against Melbourne, their score of 6.1 (37) made it the third consecutive time that they have reached the first break on that score. And for good measure, you can add round 2 into that collection, as they achieved the same quarter-time total that week against Carlton. The flying start is no guarantee of victory though. Despite it leading to big wins against Melbourne this week and the Bulldogs last week, the first two occurrences of it ended in 91-point and 65-point losses.

Adelaide's accuracy allows achievement of advantageous outcome

It's not often a team will kick eight first quarter goals and then get rolled but that's exactly what happened to Richmond on Saturday. After giving the Tigers a 33-point start, the Crows gradually whittled the margin away before cruising to a 19-point win. Unusual accuracy was a very important factor in their comeback. The Crows' final score of 17.4 (106) was only the eighth such occurrence of it in history. The first time it occurred, in 1936, Richmond were also on the receiving end. Amazingly, though, the score on that occasion, registered by St Kilda, was not good enough for victory as they succumbed by a single point to the Tigers' 15.17 (107) at Punt Road.

Previous pedlars of precision

As accurate as Adelaide were on Saturday, there have been several superior sharpshooting efforts from sides scoring 17 goals or more. Here's a handful:

Geelong 23.4 (142) d Carlton 11.11 (77) at Docklands, Round 14, 2006
Hawthorn 21.4 (130) d Essendon 9.8 (62) at Windy Hill, Round 15, 1970
Adelaide 21.4 (130) d Essendon 18.6 (114) at Docklands, Round 11, 2009
Fremantle 20.3 (123) d Sydney 14.12 (96) at Subiaco, Round 15, 2000
Sydney 20.4 (124) d Port Adelaide 17.15 (117) at Football Park, Round 1, 1998
St Kilda 18.2 (110) d Essendon 15.10 (100) at the MCG, Round 18, 1994
Hawthorn 18.4 (112) lost to Carlton 22.22 (154) at Princes Park, Round 2, 2000
Sydney 18.4 (112) lost to North Melbourne 17.16 (118) at the SCG, Round 19, 2004
Western Bulldogs 18.4 (112) d Sydney 14.10 (94) at the SCG, Round 7, 2008
Melbourne 17.3 (105) d Footscray 15.8 (98) at the MCG, Round 7, 1947
Geelong 17.3 (105) lost to Western Bulldogs 18.9 (117) at Kardinia Park, Round 9, 2002

From the sublime to the ridiculous

Not many would argue that this looks like being the most wide open season in a long time. There are many who think that any one of the current top seven sides could take home the premiership cup on the last Saturday in September, 2012.

Well I'd like to put forward an argument that it's even more wide open than that. Imagine, for a moment, that the next nine rounds pan out with the following sides winning:

OK, so maybe you'll need to suspend just a little bit of belief with those projected results. But if they do just happen to come about, here's what the ladder will look like come the end of Round 23:

That's right. 15 teams equal on 12 wins and 10 losses. So if you think percentage might not be important come the start of September, you'd better think again!

It's not all blue for Carlton fans

Every cloud has a silver lining and, for Blues' fans, the silver lining to the very dark cloud that hung over them after last Friday night's capitulation to Hawthorn, is that Chris Judd has now played 100 games for Carlton, meaning his son Oscar will be eligible for selection by the Blues under the father/son rule. (Thanks to Geoff Slattery for that little tidbit.)

First among unequals

The three twilight/night games on Saturday were all blow-outs and not games likely to be remembered for years to come. But they did produce a nice little statistical record between them. The final scores in all of those games (166-40 West Coast v Gold Coast, 140-56 Essendon v Bulldogs, 132-38 Sydney v GWS) were all the first ever occurrences of those score-lines. And the next day Geelong completed a quadrella of previously unseen score-lines by defeating Port Adelaide 99-61.

Ridiculous anagrammatic footy postcode of the week

When Saturday's West Coast v Gold Coast game ended and evening enveloped Subiaco, the Eagles had managed to score 3, 2, 6 and 5 behinds in each of their four quarters. With 3265 being the postcode of GLENORMISTON SOUTH, this obliquely reflected the fact that there was never a chance of West Coast turning out losers in the match. Why? Because GLENORMISTON SOUTH is an anagram of LOSERS TONIGHT? UM... NO!