Micro Noises 202: Gap years are Grand!
Don't mind the gap
Congratulations to Richmond, who have notched up their 12th V/AFL premiership, and second inside three years. The Tigers were keen to atone for their unexpected Preliminary Final exit in 2018 and they did so in style, thrashing the Giants. A brace of flags with a year in between is not an uncommon occurrence. Even the Tigers have done it twice before.
All up, their have been 16 V/AFL premierships won after a 'gap year'. The first came exactly 100 years ago, when Collingwood defeated Richmond after having lost the 1918 Grand Final by five points. The second came 15 years later when Richmond success was also interrupted by a Grand Final loss to South Melbourne. Two sides have had a 'double-gap', Geelong premiers in 2007, 2009 and 2011, but missing out in 2008 and 2010, and Carlton winning flags in 1968, 1970 and 1972. The Blues are the gap-year specialists, having had a year off between premierships five times.
Of the 16 gap-year winners, six have made it to a Grand Final, but lost, in the intervening season.
GAP YEAR WINNERS
PREMIERSHIP TEAM | YEARS | GAP YEAR RESULT |
Collingwood | 1917, 1919 | Lost 1918 Grand Final to South Melbourne |
Richmond | 1932, 1934 | Lost 1933 Grand Final to South Melbourne |
Carlton | 1945, 1947 | Finished 6th in 1946, two games outside the Top 4 |
Melbourne | 1957, 1959 | Lost 1958 Grand Final to Collingwood |
Richmond | 1967, 1969 | Finished 5th in 1968, half a game outside the Top 4. |
Carlton | 1968, 1970 | Lost 1969 Grand Final to Richmond |
Carlton | 1970, 1972 | Finished 5th in 1971, half a game outside the Top 4. |
North Melbourne | 1975, 1977 | Lost 1976 Grand Final to Hawthorn. |
Hawthorn | 1976, 1978 | Lost 1977 Preliminary Final to North Melbourne |
Carlton | 1979, 1981 | Lost 1980 First Semi-Final to Collingwood |
Hawthorn | 1986, 1988 | Lost 1987 Grand Final to Carlton |
Hawthorn | 1989, 1991 |
Lost 1990 Elimination Final to Hawthorn |
West Coast | 1992, 1994 |
Lost Semi-Final to Essendon |
Geelong | 2007, 2009 | Lost 2008 Grand Final to Hawthorn |
Geelong | 2009, 2011 | Lost 2010 Preliminary Final to Collingwood |
Richmond | 2017, 2019 |
Lost 2018 Preliminary Final to Collingwood |
First time unlucky
GWS's first Grand Final didn't quite pan out the way they would have liked, but they're in good company. Several other clubs have had Grand Final debuts to forget, and for quite a few of those, premiership success was just around the corner. Of the 18 teams to have made a V/AFL Grand Final (University never got there and Gold Coast are yet to do so) 10 of them (including the Giants) have experienced a loss in their first appearance.
Of the nine other first-time losers, five won a flag within three years of the loss, three of those five the very next season. Three of the others had longer waits. For South Melbourne it was a 10-year delay, for North Melbourne 25 years, and for poor old St Kilda, it was another 53 years before they finally claimed the premiership. The ninth previous debutant loser, Fremantle, made a Grand Final six years ago, and the Dockers are still waiting.
Interestingly, of the eight sides to lose in their first premiership play-off appearance, six were winners in their next Grand Final appearance. The two exceptions, South Melbourne and North Melbourne, were successful at their third Grand Final attempt.
So, as painful as the last week has been for the Giants, history suggests success is probably not far away. The odds are better than 50-50 of a flag by 2022 and the chances of victory in GWS's next Grand Final appearance are even better. But even if GWS lose their next Grand Final, history tells us it will be third time lucky for the Giants.
TEAM | FIRST GRAND FINAL | RESULT |
FIRST PREMIERSHIP (DEBUT LOSERS) |
Adelaide |
1997 |
defeated St Kilda by 31 points | |
Brisbane |
2001 |
defeated Essendon by 26 points | |
Carlton |
1904 |
lost to Fitzroy by 24 points | 1906 (2 years) |
Collingwood | 1901 | lost to Essendon by 27 points | 1902 (1 year) |
Essendon | 1898 | lost to Fitzroy by 15 points | 1901* (3 years) |
Fitzroy | 1898 | defeated Essendon by 15 points | |
Footscray/WB | 1954 | defeated Melbourne by 51 points | |
Fremantle | 2013 | lost to Hawthorn by 15 points | ???? |
Geelong | 1925 | defeated Collingwood by 10 points | |
GWS |
2019 |
lost to Richmond by 89 points |
???? |
Gold Coast | ???? | .... | |
Hawthorn | 1961 | defeated Footscray by 43 points | |
Melbourne | 1900 | defeated Fitzroy by 4 points | |
North Melbourne | 1950 | lost to Essendon by 38 points | 1975 (25 years) |
Port Adelaide | 2004 |
defeated Brisbane by 40 points |
|
Richmond | 1919 | lost to Collingwood by 25 points | 1920 (1 year) |
St Kilda | 1913 | lost to Fitzroy by 13 points | 1966 (53 years) |
South Melbourne/Syd | 1899 | lost by 1 point | 1909 (10 years) |
University | No Grand Final | N/A | |
West Coast | 1991 | lost to Hawthorn by 53 points | 1992 (1 year) |
* Essendon had already one a premiership in 1897 but a round-robin finals series meant there was no Grand Final.
Playing the percentages
×
Right ▼
Richmond's thrashing of GWS might not have been a Grand Final record in terms of margin but, thanks to Jack Riewoldt's goal in the game's dying, moments, it was a record via an alternative interpretation. Riewoldt's major took the Tigers' score to 114, which was 82.0% of the aggregate score of both teams. This took it past the previous record of 81.6%, established by Melbourne in 1960 when they defeated Collingwood 8.14.62 to 2.2.14.
Magpie fans disappointed about missing out on another Grand Final can now take solace in the fact that they have forgone an unwanted Grand Final record that they had been burdened with for 59 years.
Did you Pickett?
Who would have thought when he was drafted mid-year that Marlion Pickett would not only become one of the stars of Richmond's premiership win, but that he would do so in his debut AFL match? If you put your hand up and say, "Me!", we're not sure we'll believe you.
On Saturday Pickett became only the sixth player in V/AFL history to make his debut in a Grand Final. And while he is not the first to be victorious on debut, he is the first to be so in September. The previous two September debutants — Essendon's Harry Prout in 1908 and Keith Batchelor of Collingwood in 1952 — were both on the wrong end of the result in their debuts.
YEAR | DEBUTANT | DATE | GRAND FINAL RESULT |
1908 | Harry Prout (Essendon) | 26 September | Carlton d Essendon by 9 points |
1920 | Billy James (Richmond) | 2 October | Richmond d Collingwood by 17 points |
1923 | George Rawle (Essendon) | 20 October | Essendon d Fitzroy by 17 points |
1926 | Frank 'Pop' Vine (Melbourne) | 9 October | Melbourne d Collingwood by 57 points |
1952 | Keith Batchelor (Collingwood) | 27 September | Geelong d Collingwood by 46 points |
2019 | Marlion Pickett (Richmond) | 28 September | Richmond d GWS by 89 points |
Omen of the week next year
The 2019 premiership race has been run and won so it's time to look towards 2020 and who might be the next AFL flag winners. We're always on the lookout for omens in numbers and we think we've found one. A warm morning in Melbourne on Wednesday this week saw the mercury climb to 29.7°C, only the second time in history that a temperature higher than 29.5°C has been recorded in the Victorian capital on October 3. The previous occasion was in 2015 when it peaked at 31.3°C.
The following year's premiership team was the Western Bulldogs. Get on the Red, White and Blue in 2020!
Postcode of the week
Richmond might have shared the honours with GWS when it came to stoppage clearances in the Grand Final, but that's all the Tigers needed to do to stamp themselves as the Number One AFL team in the land. The stoppage clearance totals were 24-24, and 2424 is the postcode of a little place North of Sydney called... Number One.
Ridiculous Grand Final anagrams
We must admit we were a bit concerned that Richmond's plan of debuting Marlion Pickett in a Grand Final might be a failure, especially after we realised that MARLION PICKETT GRAND FINAL DEBUT is an anagram of ROMANTIC TIGER PLAN BAD — IT FLUNKED. But once we worked out that MARLION PICKETT IN GRAND FINAL DEBUT was an anagram of "ROMANTIC BELIEF IN LAD — KING AT PUNT RD!" we knew the Tigers were probably on a good thing. So good in fact, that Pickett might have won the medal for best-on-ground had it not been for RICHMOND’S DUSTY MARTIN and his RUDDY NORM SMITH ANTICS!
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.
Comments
Leo from Freo 20 October 2019
This is absolutely brilliant !
Login to leave a comment.