Micro Noises 83: Closing the gap
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Ashley McGrath!
The Brisbane Lions no longer have a member of any of their premiership sides of 2001, 2002 and 2003 on their playing list, with Ash McGrath, the last remaining such player, having retired at the end of 2014. McGrath was a member of the third of those flag-wining teams, collecting eight possessions in the Lions' win over Collingwood in 2003.
McGrath's career was filled with many other highlights, not least his post-siren goal to give Brisbane an amazing victory over Geelong in 2013, coming from 52 points behind. But what many footy pundits - and McGrath himself - may not know, is that his decision to retire when he did has closed a gap that has remained an eyesore for number-lovers for some years. You see, prior to his hanging up the boots, the only games total below 287 on which no player has ended their career was 214.
So, on behalf of stats heads across the footy landscape, Micro Noises says congratulations to Ash McGrath on a fine career, and thanks for closing the gap!
Who's next?
McGrath's retirement leaves 287 as the lowest games total on which no player has ended a career. It just so happens that North Melbourne's Nick Dal Santo has played 287 AFL games in his career. And it also just so happens that Dal Santo sadly sustained a serious hamstring injury last week, one that will see him spend an extended period on the sidelines. While he has every intention of doing a full rehabilitation and resuming his run towards the 300-game mark, we would ask Nick to stop and at least consider hanging up the boots, and becoming the first AFL player to end on 287.
If he were to do so, it would leave 299, 298, 296 and 295 as the only gaps below 300 to fill.
One in a hundred
Melbourne didn't have a great day against GWS last Saturday, surrendering a big half-time lead to lose by 45 points. But the Demons did at least create a nice bit of historical symmetry by doing so. The scoreline in Melbourne's round 2, 2015, loss was 56 to 101 and, amazingly, the side also lost 56 to 101 in round 2, 1915.
First among unequals
North Melbourne's 82-point win over Brisbane was the 14,598th game of VFL/AFL football played since 1897 but the first to finish with a final score of 133 v 52. So far this season, all other matches have finished with final score pairings that have been registered at least once before.
Score Wars
78 was a winning score for Essendon in the Bombers' thrilling win over Hawthorn on Sunday, and it's well on the way to being a winning score in Score Wars 2015. After coming up only four times in the entire 2014 season, 78 has been a final score three times in the first two rounds this year. It leads the way, ahead of 104, 87, 63 and 60, each of which have come up twice. Look out for Melbourne to score 63 against Adelaide in round three. The Crows' opponents in rounds one and two - North Melbourne and Collingwood - each ended up on 63 in those matches.
The Marginal Medal
Adelaide's win over Collingwood sees 27 points move into the equal lead in the race for the Marginal Medal. 27 has now come up twice as a margin in 2015, as has 12 points. 27 was only seen twice in 2014, while 12 came up four times.
Anagrammatic postcode of the week
With Carlton's season off to a shocking start, the media and public blowtorch has turned towards the club, with a specific focus on the player list. While the line in the early days of Mick Malthouse's time at the Blues was that he had a group of players to take them to a flag before too long, it's now generally accepted that the list contains nowhere near the depth of players required and needs a full rebuild. All of this is perhaps best reflected by the fact that Carlton were 6.1 at quarter-time last Friday night and still 6.1 at half time, and 6161 is the postcode of ROTTNEST ISLAND, which is an anagram of ...AND LIST'S ROTTEN.
Ridiculous footy anagram of the week
Matthew Pavlich had a good game against Geelong last Sunday, kicking two goals and collecting 18 touches. But at 33 years of age, Pavlich is one of a group of ageing footy stars, some of whom are struggling with injury and form. Adam Goodes for instance has been dropped to Sydney's reserves this week and is perhaps limping towards the end of a fine career, while North's Nick Dals Santo limped off with a serious hamstring injury last Sunday. So perhaps it's not surprising then, to discover that FREMANTLE'S MATTHEW PAVLICH is an anagram of AFL VETERANS - WATCH THEM LIMP.
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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