Micro Noises 148: Lost and gained
Brownlow lost
Way back in our 15th edition of Micro Noises, we celebrated Jobe Watson's claiming of the 2012 Brownlow Medal, and that fact that he had become the second Watson to win the award after St Kilda's Colin had done so in 1925. Alas, it is our melancholy duty to inform you that number has been reduced back to just one, after Jobe was stripped of his award for his involvement in the 2012 supplements controversy at Essendon.
This leaves Smith as the only surname to have collected a Brownlow Medal via multiple players, with Geelong's Bernie Smith the winner of the medal and St Kilda's Ross Smith a winner 16 years later. And for those who like to get technical (and that includes us!), Melbourne's Ivor Warne-Smith could make a case for inclusion in that exclusive club, having won the medal in 1926 and 1928.
Brownlow gained
While this week was a sad one for Watsons in general and Jobe Watson in particular, it was also a time of celebration for Richmond's Trent Cotchin and former Hawk Sam Mitchell in particular, and a group to which they now belong, one that previously comprised a single player but whose membership has tripled to three. By being retrospectively awarded 2012 medals this week, Cotchin and Mitchell have now joined Essendon's Bill Hutchison as the only players with a surname containing the letters "-tch-" to have taken home the Brownlow Medal. Bill was a dual winner as leading vote-getter in both 1952 (jointly with Roy Wright) and 1953.
Experience lost
The end of the 2016 AFL season has brought with it the loss of the league's four most experienced players, with Brent Harvey (432 AFL matches), Matthew Pavlich (353), Corey Enright (332) and Nick Dal Santo (322) all hanging up the boots. It will leave the AFL with no players with 400 or more games to their name for the first time since 2014 and no players with more than 350 games for the first time since 2011.
The most experienced players left on the field in 2017 will be St Kilda's Nick Riewoldt and Hawthorn's Shaun Burgoyne, both of whom will start next season with 319 games to their name. They will have to play on into 2018 to have any chance of being the next to crack the 350-game mark.
Experience regained
While the retirements mentioned above will see plenty of experience disappear from the AFL arena in 2017, the footy world will welcome back the experience, wit and wisdom of Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy next year. Murphy was on target to join the 300 club this year, but his career stalled on 295 games when he did his knee in round three against Hawthorn.
Bob will rejoin his premiership teammates in 2017, and his fifth game will see him make the 300 mark. If he beats other players to the mark, he will be the 78th V/AFL player to get there. Set to join him in the exclusive 300-club in 2017 are Essendon's James Kelly, who has played 293 matches with the Cats and Dons, Brendon Goddard (289 games, St Kilda/Essendon), Gary Ablett (288, Geelong/Gold Coast), Jarrad McVeigh (287, Sydney), Luke Hodge (286, Hawthorn) and Matthew Boyd (282, Western Bulldogs).
The 77 players to have made it to the 300 mark thus far represent just 0.06% of all 12,486 players to have appeared in V/AFL matches.
With a little help from our friends
Here at Micro Noises, we love delving into the footy archives and coming up with obscure stats and facts, and we love it just as much when our friends do the same. And recently our Twitter pals Good Ol' Swish and Adam Haase did exactly that. Swish was trawling the AFL Tables website, as he is wont to do, and found a match in 1997 in which Brisbane defeated Richmond 7.26 to 7.8.
Swish wondered if that was a a record of some kind: "Don't ask me what sort, but it looks odd." We agreed and thought perhaps it might be biggest behind difference in a match where two teams had kicked the same number of goals. Thanks to Adam, we had our answer very soon after. Adam had recollection of a match finishing with a scoreline of 8.30 to 8.8. His memory served him well and we found a match in 1944 in which South Melbourne 8.30, defeated Geelong 8.8.
Eagle-eyed Swish then spotted something perhaps even more amazing. The three-quarter time score in that 1944 match saw South leading 7.26 to 7.8, the exact final score in the Brisbane-Richmond match more than 50 years later! If ever there was a moment that called for the playing of the Twilight Zone theme music, this is the one!
Twilight Zone moment number 2
Swish and Adam's revelation got us looking back through the record books for other cases similar to those above and, while we didn't find any of note, we did come up with another little Twilight Zone nomination. In round 13, 1962, Fitzroy ventured out to the perennially windy Western Oval to take on Footscray. It was a dirty day for the Lions, and they lost the match by 19 points, one which saw their half-time score at only 1.11 and their three-quarter-time score still at 1.11.
Fast forward four years to 1966. In round four, the Lions again took a trip to Western Oval, and again they had a dirty day, losing to the Dogs once more. The margin this time was 38 points, twice as much as in 1962 but the story at half time and three-quarter time was eerily similar to that of four years previously - at half time Fitzroy was 1.11 and at three-quarter time the Lions were - you guessed it - still 1.11.
Insert Twilight Zone theme music here - again!
Not quite Twilight Zone music-worthy but still unusual
This week at Micro Noises HQ one of our tasks was to go through a list of all V/AFL players to have had a first name of Heath. (This list was, of course, entered into our 'Heath' ledger.) As it turns out, there are eight players on that list and three of them played for Collingwood. Interestingly, all three of those Heaths had surnames beginning with S - Scotland, Shaw and Shephard - and all three later went on to join other clubs, Scotland going to Carlton, Shaw moving to GWS and Shephard finishing his career at the Brisbane Bears.
Ridiculous footy anagrams of the week
While ex-Hawk Sam Mitchell will no doubt be thrilled with his retrospective Brownlow Medal win, he is a gracious enough person to pause and reflect on the pain the whole affair has caused Jobe Watson. And that's probably hardly surprising when you consider that HAWTHORN'S SAM MITCHELL is an anagram of THRILL? HMM. WATSON ACHES.
In other news, Melbourne's Clayton Oliver was pulled over by police earlier this week and was found to have been driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit. The club was very disappointed when advised of the incident, a situation that could well be summed up by the fact that "I'M CLAYTON OLIVER" is an anagram of "OVER LIMIT? NO, CLAY!"
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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