Micro Noises - Issue 6

Dockers are no Bill Collins

Bill Collins, the late great race-caller, was known as "The Accurate One". After Fremantle's second quarter against GWS, there's little danger of any Docker inheriting old Bill's nickname. The Dockers went from being 6.1 (37) at quarter-time to a main-break score of 8.14 (62), meaning that their total second term output was an unbelievable 2.13! As the behinds accumulated during that quarter, our thoughts turned to the obvious question: was this the most number of behinds registered in a single VFL/AFL quarter? Before we could even get our hands on the record books, word came through via stats guru @js_kay on Twitter that the Bulldogs had replicated that behind total in a match against St Kilda in 1985.

But had any team scored even more? The answer is yes, and not just once or twice. We have found eight instances of a team scoring MORE than 13 behinds in a single term (along with 13 other examples of exactly 13). The all-time record (as far as we have been able to ascertain) is 16 behinds. This dubious honour is shared by Collingwood and Footscray. In Round 6, 1929 the Dogs went from a reasonable 8.7 (55) at half-time to 15.23 (113) at the last change. That equates to a third-quarter return of 7 goals 16! 41 years later, in 1970, Collingwood kicked 6.16 in a third quarter against North Melbourne, on their way to a score of 17.30 (and a heart-breaking Grand Final loss - but that's another story).

Our dig failed to turn up any cases of 15 behinds being scored in a quarter, but we did unearth six instances of 14 behinds being registered. Here's a list of the 22 most behindful (yes, we do know that "behindful" is not officially a word - yet) quarters in VFL/AFL history, to the best of our knowledge. We'd love to hear from you if there are any we've missed.

º The inaccurate quarters from St Kilda in 1952 and 1976 and Carlton in 1980 ultimately cost them victory.
† No, Ross Lyon was not coaching St Kilda on that day.
‡ Hawthorn went on to score 25.41, the highest number of behinds ever scored in a match by a single team. Amazingly, in the same quarter that the Hawks kicked 5.13, St Kilda managed to kick 8.3.

So what does the list above tell us?

• that the Western Oval and Junction Oval are good places to kick a lot of behinds
• that the MCG isn't
• and that if you want to score 16 behinds in a quarter, you need to do it in round 6.

Gig Dig #1 update

The list above gives us some further information in our quest outlined in Micro Noises 5, to find the most number of scoring shots kicked by a side in one quarter. Last week we mentioned that both Essendon and Hawthorn had 19-shot quarters in 2011. The list above provides us with efforts that surpass those. Specifically, Footscray's 7.16 effort in 1929 is an example of 23 scoring shots in a quarter. Thus far, that is the highest number we have found. The list below is the 11 known quarters to have recorded the most scoring shots by a single team.

º Hawthorn's final score of 25.41 gave them a total of 66 scoring shots, the highest ever in a match by a team. The next highest is 60, recorded by Carlton, when they scored 30.30 against Hawthorn in round 2, 1969.

And what does this list teach us?

• that round 6 is also good for having a lot of scoring shots in a quarter
• that if you want to kick 10 or more goals and nine or more behinds in the same quarter, Princes Park is the place to go
• and that the second half of a match seems to be the best time to have a lot of shots.

On the double

We received a tweet after Geelong defeated Essendon on Friday night, 20.14 (134) to 10.7 (67), asking when there had last been an instance of a side scoring twice the number of goals and twice the number of behinds of their opposition. Here's what we discovered after a bit of research:

• Friday was the first such case this year, but not the first case of a side's final score being double that of its opponent. That honour also belonged to Collingwood in round 7, when they defeated Brisbane 17.14 (116) to 8.10 (58).
• There has never previously been a final score of 20.14 to 10.7. In fact, there has never before even been a final score of 134-67 in any combination.
• It's four years since a side has doubled their opposition's goals AND behinds. The last occurrence was in round 19, 2008, when Carlton 18.24 (132) defeated Port Adelaide 9.12 (66). Coincidentally, it was the last time before Fremantle did so on Sunday that any team had scored 18.24.

The drought-breaking Suns

Congratulations to Guy McKenna and his team for breaking a 30-year drought in their match on Sunday. Gold Coast's final score of 5.18 (48) was the first time we've seen it since Geelong kicked the same against Fitzroy at Kardinia Park in 1982.

Score Wars

With both Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs scoring 12.12 on Saturday night, 84 has jumped into equal-leadership in the battle for the most recorded final score of 2012. 84 joins 62 in front, with each of those having come up seven times thus far. 79 and 87 are just behind, having registered six times for the season.

Year of the week

When the Swans went into the quarter-time huddle trailing the Saints by 19 points, it seemed that their chances of retaining top spot were about to go up in smoke. Their score at that point, 1.6.12, was quite fitting when you think about it, because the year that John Rolfe exported the first crop of improved tobacco from Jamestown was 1612.

Postcode of the week

Round 17 didn't quite live up to the Christmas in July billing that it was given by Fox Footy but Collingwood and Hawthorn did their best to live up to the spirit of it by posting a half-time score of 6.7 to 9.8. The postcode 6798 belongs to Christmas Island.

Ridiculous footy anagram of the week

In the aftermath of our beloved Doggies' loss to Carlton on Saturday night (and because of our extreme jealousy of their 16 flags), we were sorely tempted to point out that one of the Blues' three debutants on the night, LEVI CASBOULT, is an anagram of AT CLUB SO EVIL. But we didn't think that would be fair to the young man. Indeed we hope his career blossoms, especially given that he is also an anagram of A CLUB'S VIOLET.