Australian Football

Micro Noises - Issue 10

Only in Canberra

It seems that our nation's capital and the score-line 84-59 have a special bond. When Melbourne defeated GWS, 11.18 (84) to 9.5 (59) on Saturday, it was just the second time since World War II that a VFL or AFL match has ended with a 84-59 final score. The only other such occurrence was when North Melbourne 12.12 (84) defeated Sydney 8.11 (59) on the 25th May, 2003. And that match, too, was at Manuka Oval.

But wait - there's more! For Melbourne it was their fourth win of the season and it came up against a Sydney-based team. In 2003, North's win was also its fourth for the season and it too was against a Sydney-based side. Hang on, though, there's more still. In North's win over Sydney, they outscored the Swans in each of the first three quarters but lost the final term. This is exactly what happened to Melbourne against GWS on Saturday. And that's not all (but you knew that would be the case, didn't you?) - in each of these matches, the winning side had a player named Jones (Corey for North Melbourne, Nathan for Melbourne), and the losing side had a player named Davis (Nick for Sydney and Phil for GWS) AND a player with a hyphenated surname (Roberts-Thomson for the Swans and Hoskin-Elliott for the Giants).

And finally, Saturday's losers, GWS, had Israel Folau in their team, who on Saturday was exactly 23 years and 137 days old on the day of the game, just as Adam Goodes was when the Swans lost to North on that day back in 2003. We think there's nothing else left to say about this other than [insert Twilight Zone theme music here].

The accurate ones

A quick glance at the Round 21 results on our SANFL page reveals an amazing feat of accuracy performed by Central District against South Adelaide last weekend. In defeating the Panthers by 49 points, the Bulldogs compiled the amazing score of 23.2 (140)! We are unsure if this represents a record at SANFL level or perhaps even for any state-level league. We can certainly tell you, however, that it's a more accurate performance than any by a VFL/AFL side that's kicked 20 goals or higher. Central's total represents a goal-to-behinds ratio of 11.5 to 1, a long way ahead of Fremantle's 6.7 to 1, registered when they kicked 20.3 against Sydney in 2000. (A list of the AFL top 10 can be seen in Micro Noises 5.) We're keen to hear from anyone who knows of a more accurate performance, at any level, by a side that's kicked 20 or more goals.

First among unequals

More than 14,000 matches into the VFL/AFL's existence and we can still come up with a "first" in most rounds. This week we can report that Friday night's Geelong-St Kilda match was the first in history to finish with a score-line of 123-81. Sydney's 167-85 win over the Bulldogs and Hawthorn's 129-65 victory against Gold Coast were also firsts.

Score wars

It's a battle royal between 84 and 91 in 2012. 84 took a brief lead when Melbourne kicked 11.18 against GWS on Saturday afternoon. It was the eighth score of 84 chalked up this season. But 91 hit back later that night, courtesy of North Melbourne's winning total against Collingwood, to rejoin 84 in the lead. 85 was also registered twice in Round 21. It has now been seen seven times this year, and moves into outright second place.

Meanwhile Essendon's lamentable 8.12 scored against Carlton was the first time 60 has been a final score. This means that every score from 40 to 129 has been registered at least once this year.

Drawing a long bow

21 rounds into season 2012 and we still haven't seen a tied game. Perhaps the best chance of registering what would be the 150th draw in VFL/AFL history will come this week, when Brisbane takes on Port Adelaide at Footy Park. These two sides drew in two out of their first three encounters and, although they haven't drawn since, two draws from 26 games represents 7.7% of all games between them, far higher than between any other two teams.

Postcode of the week

Geelong's win over St Kilda last Friday night means that the Saints' season is virtually dead and buried. The Cats scored 5, 6, 0 and 7 goals in each of their four quarters in that match, which seems very appropriate, given that 5607 is the postcode of Coffin Bay

Ridiculous footy anagram of the week

Congratulations to GWS Giant Luke Power, who played his 300th AFL game last weekend. The man's been on the footy scene for what seems like forever, so we were a bit surprised to discover that Luke is just 32 years of age, still a long way from getting any wrinkles. It makes you wonder why the Lions ever let the still smooth-skinned Power go. And it also makes it ironic that GIANT LUKE POWER is an anagram of UP TO WRINKLE AGE.