We currently have a Reserves/Under 19 thread and a WAFL thread, so I felt it was appropriate to put forward some info I have regarding the night/preseason competition; mainly because I feel I can offer something “new” in relation to these games. The following statistics come mainly from Inside Football, who began publishing stats on the preseason comp in 1989. For some reason, they stopped doing this in 2008, and I have since turned to the Herald-Sun website for subsequent info. There was however, a lapse of sorts in 1997 and 1998, when Inside Football did not publish any preseason stats. I managed, at the time, to extract some stats for 1998 from the AFL website, but only for the quarter finals, semi finals and grand final, thus I do not have complete data for that season. I only have stats from 1997 relating to the grand final, which were printed in The Age. Also, the stats for the 1994 quarter final between Collingwood and Richmond at Waverley were not published in Inside Football.
So, instead of simply “sitting on” these statistics I have collected, I thought I may as well share them and post them somewhere. There may very well be others out there who have heaps of stats or info on the night/preseason games, and hopefully this may make a good thread on which others can contribute what they know.
I have decided to call grounds by one name throughout the thread as I personally have a bit of trouble keeping up with all the name changes that have come and gone. Etihad/Telstra Dome is referred to as Docklands, Optus Oval is called Princes Park, Skilled Stadium is Kardinia Park, and AAMI Stadium is called Football Park, etc. These are the names I am familiar with and the idea is to build some consistency throughout the thread, so that people can see how often a particular ground is featured among the records, even though a high proportion have been played at Waverley and Docklands. Hope this won’t be too confusing. I’m sure you’ll let me know if I have erred in this. Personally, I feel that if you keep changing the name of a ground, it doesn’t do much to preserve the character and history of the ground.
Similarly, I have also decided to refer to the Western Bulldogs as Footscray, as this is how they were known for many decades, including the point in time when the night series began. Also, I have not referred to North Melbourne as Kangaroos at any stage.
Hope this proves a worthwhile thread.
So, instead of simply “sitting on” these statistics I have collected, I thought I may as well share them and post them somewhere. There may very well be others out there who have heaps of stats or info on the night/preseason games, and hopefully this may make a good thread on which others can contribute what they know.
I have decided to call grounds by one name throughout the thread as I personally have a bit of trouble keeping up with all the name changes that have come and gone. Etihad/Telstra Dome is referred to as Docklands, Optus Oval is called Princes Park, Skilled Stadium is Kardinia Park, and AAMI Stadium is called Football Park, etc. These are the names I am familiar with and the idea is to build some consistency throughout the thread, so that people can see how often a particular ground is featured among the records, even though a high proportion have been played at Waverley and Docklands. Hope this won’t be too confusing. I’m sure you’ll let me know if I have erred in this. Personally, I feel that if you keep changing the name of a ground, it doesn’t do much to preserve the character and history of the ground.
Similarly, I have also decided to refer to the Western Bulldogs as Footscray, as this is how they were known for many decades, including the point in time when the night series began. Also, I have not referred to North Melbourne as Kangaroos at any stage.
Hope this proves a worthwhile thread.