Micro Noises 185: Out with the old...
...In with the new
With the Bulldogs having failed to make this year's finals and Sydney going down to Geelong last Friday night, a new broom has swept clean this year's Grand Final prospects. Three of the four possible match-ups for the 'big dance' are ones never before seen in the V/AFL, while the fourth - Richmond v Geelong - was last seen in 1967.
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The elimination of the Swans and Dogs from the premiership race means that this year will be the first since 2012 that neither of the two Grand Finalists will have played in either of the previous two seasons' deciders. That thought prompted our Twitter friend Trucker Slim if that was a record of some sort. Naturally, when someone utters the words "Is that a record?" within earshot of us, it is a proverbial red rag to a bull, so off we went and did a bit of digging.
What we found were 21 previous cases of Grand Finalists making their first appearance for at least three years, and those can be seen in the table at right.
This year will see the 22nd such instance, and whoever the Grand Final participants end up being, they will form part of a rare subset of the overall group. No matter which combination of Cats, Crows, Giants and Tigers plays off, we will have seen six different Grand Finalists in the space of three seasons - Hawthorn, West Coast, the Western Bulldogs, Sydney and this year's two combatants.
There have only been six such previous instances:
1944: Fitzroy, Richmond; 1945: Carlton, South Melbourne; 1946: Essendon, Melbourne
1960: Melbourne, Collingwood; 1961: Hawthorn, Footscray; 1962: Essendon, Carlton
1962: Essendon, Carlton; 1963: Geelong, Hawthorn; 1964: Melbourne, Collingwood
1963: Geelong, Hawthorn; 1964: Melbourne, Collingwood; 1965: Essendon, St Kilda
1966: St Kilda, Collingwood; 1967: Richmond, Geelong; 1968: Carlton, Essendon
1995: Carlton, Geelong; North Melbourne, Sydney; 1997: Adelaide, St Kilda
There has never been a case of eight different participants over four consecutive Grand Finals, but it could happen next year. Perhaps we could have Geelong and Richmond playing this year's Grand Final, with Adelaide and GWS facing off next year. Or 2017's preliminary final losers playing in next year's Grand Final regardless of this weekend's victors. Or one or two other teams from outside of that group - we don't care, we'd just love to see it happen!
This week's State of the States statement
Beginning this week we introduce a new segment to Micro Noises, one that takes a look at any interesting or quirky facts from the state leagues around Australia. This will become a regular feature in the 2018 season.
Our first port of call is Adelaide, where Woodville-West Torrens have been bundled out in 'straight sets' and will go a sixth year without a premiership. To rub salt into the Eagles' wound, the two sides they succumbed to in the finals series were teams they had beaten twice in the minor rounds. They defeated Port Adelaide by 21 and 27 points in the home-and-away rounds before losing to the Magpies by 33 points in the Second Semi-Final, and had beaten Sturt by 14 and 13 points before falling to the Double Blues by 20 points last weekend.
Port and Sturt will play off for the flag this Sunday, the two sides having met in nine previous Grand Finals, most recently in 1998. Interestingly, across those nine Grand Finals, a three-figure score has been achieved only twice, both times by Sturt, in 1966 and 1976.
Meanwhile, the VFL Grand Final to be played this weekend will end a drought that's lasted 112 years. Port Melbourne and Richmond will play off for the Victorian state premiership, the two sides having last met in a final of any sort way back in 1905. That 1905 match saw the Tigers triumph, so the Borough will this Sunday finally have the chance to gain revenge after more than a century.
There'll be no such drought broken in the WAFL, with Subiaco to meet Peel Thunder in a Grand Final for the second year running, but the TSL premiership decider will definitely provide a first, with Lauderdale to take on North Launceston. While North Launceston have played in 10 TSL Grand Finals over the past three decades, this will be Lauderdale's first, having joined the state league in 2009.
Year of the week
In a lovely nod to their 103 years of finals rivalry, the Cats and Swans set up their first quarter of their match at the MCG last Friday beautifully. Geelong led Sydney 19-14, at quarter time, with 1914 being the year the two sides first crossed paths in a final.
Ridiculous footy anagrams of the week
Tom Lonergan was a late withdrawal from Geelong's semi-final match against Sydney, after contracting food poisoning from what he claimed was a "dodgy sausage roll". Fortunately, the Cats won without him, and Lonergan will be back in the side to play Adelaide in the Preliminary Final. In hindsight we're sure Tom would agree with us that he would have been far better off if he had avoided that DODGY SAUSAGE ROLL and succumbed to his GOODLY SALAD URGES.
Unexpected news from Western Bulldogs headquarters in the last week, with the club announcing that they would seek to trade JAKE STRINGER. So well loved is Jake by many adoring Doggies' fans that we will not be surprised to see TEARS JERKING from their eyes if and when he departs Whitten Oval.
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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