Micro Noises 188: The H drought breaks
Breaking the drougHt
"Once a powerhouse of the league, they endured a long premiership drought stretching about four decades before finally breaking through for a flag in 2017."
Does the above summary sound familiar? It probably does to most footy fans, as it describes Richmond breakthrough premiership of two weeks ago. But in fact we wrote that sentence to describe something altogether different, although it does relate to the Tigers' 2017 premiership win.
Specifically, though, the drought we are referring to in this case is a coaching one, and more specifically, it pertains to coaches whose surname begins with the letter H. While Richmond ended a 37-year wait when they saluted on September 30, their coach Damien Hardwick broke an even longer one, became the first premiership coach with an H surname to win the flag since that other famous Tiger coach, 'T Shirt Tommy' Hafey.
'H' coaches were indeed once a powerhouse group, thanks to Hafey and another former Richmond coach Frank 'Checker' Hughes, who won five premierships at the helm - although only one with the Tigers, the other four being with Melbourne. Reg Hickey piloted Geelong to three flags, while George Holden (Fitzroy), Herb Howson (South Melbourne) and Fred Hughson (Fitzroy) each won one premiership, making a total of 16 premiers.
That puts the Hs in second place only one behind the Ms, and if the Tigers can go back-to-back in 2018 - or if Port Adelaide can claim its second flag under the tutelage of Ken Hinkley - then scores, as they say, will be level. On the other hand, Demons fans will be hoping to break a double-drought next year, as Richmond did in 2017. If Melbourne salute next season, they will break a 54-year premiership drought, while their coach Simon Goodwin will become the first of the Gs to take home a flag.
12 G coaches have had a go at a go at V/AFL coaching since Mick Grace first took up the reins with St Kilda over a century ago, and not one has made it even as far as a Grand Final. Mind you, that was no deterrent to AFLW clubs in their inaugural season with two of the eight clubs being coached by people with surnames beginning with G - Adelaide's Bec Goddard and the Western Bulldogs' Paul Groves. The Crows were rewarded for ignoring the G hoodoo, with Goddard not only taking them to a Grand Final but the first ever AFL Women's premiership.
17 - M (McHale 8, Matthews 4, Malthouse 3, Minogue 2)
16 - H (Hughes 5, Hafey 4, Hickey 3, Hardwick 1, Holden 1, Howsen 1, Hughson 1)
14 - B (Barassi 4, Bentley 3, Barker 2, Blight 2, Belcher 1, Beveridge 1, Bisset 1)
12 - S (Smith 6, Sheedy 4, Scott 1, Sutton 1)
10 - C (Clarkson 4, Clark 2, Coleman 2, Chadwick 1, Clymo 1)
8 - W (Worrall 5, Walls 1, Williams 1, Worsfold 1)
7 - J (Jeans 3, Joyce 2, Jesaulenko 1, Jewell 1); P (Parkin 4, Pagan 2, Parratt 1); R (Reynolds 4, Rankin 1, Ricketts 1, Roos 1)
5 - K (Kennedy 3, Kyne 2) 3 - D (Davis 1, Diggins 1, Dyer 1)
2 - T (Thompson)
1 - A (Angus); L (Longmire); N (Nicholls)
0 - E, F, G, I, O, Q, U, V, X, Y, Z
GWS responds to a Carlton SOS
As the list manager down at Princes Park, has Stephen Silvagni made a Giant Blue? We think it's a fair question to ask, and the answer has to be yes. In fact SOS, as he is affectionately known, has made several Giants Blues. With Matt Kennedy joining Carlton as part of this week's trades, he will incredibly become the tenth former GWS player to become a Blue, after Kristian Jaksch, Jed Lamb, Caleb Marchbank, Rhys Palmer, Andrew Phillips, Lachie Plowman, Liam Sumner, Mark Whiley and Jarrod Pickett*. We knew there'd been a few Giants who had gone on to become Blues, but it wasn't until Sports Central on Twitter asked us to tally up the total did we realise just how many.
Setanta Ó hAilpín, Bret Thornton are the only two male players to go the other way, with Rebecca Privitelli about to become the first woman to move between the clubs. Privitelli played five of Carlton's six matches in the inaugural AFLW season, but had been added to the Giants' 2018 playing list.
Postcode of the week
Formerly a favourite Bulldog, Jake Stringer suddenly now finds himself as a Bomber after a trade deal was done between the two clubs in the final day of the AFL Trade Period. While some Dogs' fans are happy to see the back of him, others are sorry to see him go and have wished him well as a Don. For those in the latter, group it's appropriate that Jake was traded for picks 25 and 30, given that 2530 is the postcode of AVONDALE, which is an anagram of A DON - VALE.
Ridiculous footy anagrams of the AFL Trade Period and the AFLW draft
There are those who find AFL TRADE PERIOD DAYS to be little more than a PARADE OF DIRTY DEALS but they are a fact of modern day footy and all fans have to accept that their club is part of the process. With that in mind, we decided to cast an anagrammatic eye over some of those deals.
One of the early trades saw the Giants' DEVON SMITH become an Essendon player. Giving the deal took place so early the trade period we couldn't help but wonder - did the DONS VET HIM before agreeing to this deal?
The trades took a back seat for a couple of hours on Wednesday as the second AFL Women's draft was held, with the Western Bulldogs having two of the first four selections. With the second of those the Dogs drafted MONIQUE CONTI, someone we have no doubt will become a Bulldogs icon who never gives up, especially considering that she's an anagram of ICON: "ME QUIT? NO!"
THE LAST DAY OF AFL TRADES very much lived up to its anagram, the last hour or so in particular being a TALE OF HASTY DRAFT DEALS. The day saw LOGAN AUSTIN traded from Port Adelaide to St Kilda, something we probably should have known would happen, given he is an anagram of LO! A GUN SAINT!
And in one of the day's final trades, Brandon Matera went from being a Sun to a Docker in exchange for a future round three selection. That was another eventuality we should also have expected all along. After all, anagrammatically speaking, BRANDON MATERA is A BORN TRADE MAN.
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.
Footnotes
*While Jarrod Pickett did not play a senior AFL match with GWS, he was a listed Giants player and played with the club's NEAFL side, the UWS Giants.
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