Golumless
A bigger deal out west.
Hey all. Your friendly Hawk, Golumless, is here with part one of an SFA investigation into one of the rarest events to occur within the SFA. What has prompted this investigation is that it has just occurred twice in S29 with the Alberton Swamprats meeting the Roys FFC in the 1st Qualifying Final, and the Hawks and Dragons meeting in the 2nd Elimination Final. Now you might be asking yourself, what is so special about this, just looks like a pair of ordinary finals to me? Well, dear naive and stupid reader, you've missed that this is one of the very few times that a team who have played each other in the last round of the season have come face to face in the first week of the finals, meaning that for 13 days these teams share two match threads with the same opposition, instead of just 6 days for no reason outside of the universe reminding us that we have no control of what is occurring here. An occurrence that has only occurred 8 times prior to S29*. To celebrate this, I've decided to compile the stats and history of these matches for your viewing pleasure (and by that, I mean I looked at the match hubs thread in the archives, copied the results, some of the stats which were fun and teamsheets and added some gifs).
*I'll add a caveat, I've purposely ignored planned double-ups which occurred in the middle of S7 and a couple sporadically spread out in the early seasons which would also meet this condition. This was because I think the random element of these matchups, in which you need an entire season of results to occur in such a way that two teams finish in the right spots after the minor round is a key element of why this is a rather special occurrence. I.e. The qooty gods have either blessed or given the middle finger to these teams depending on how they feel about their opposition.
The first of these matchups occurred in season 2 between the 7th Wonders (now West Coast Wonders) coming up against the Hurricanes (now who are nothing but a footnote in history). The 7th Wonders took out the round 14 match 17.11 113 to 13.10 88 away from home thanks to a 4 goals 1 effort from Satay_Mat (I don't know who this poster is, but this is before team sheets so I only have how the sim hacked up names). Unfortunately, Satay_Mat did not even come close to repeating those heroics in front of his home crowd the next week, as he only managed 1 handball as both teams drew, 12.11 83 to 12.11 83. A 4 goal effort from Lioness and a 14 disposal effort from someone named Bloodied were the standout performances there. Naturally, this meant the match had to be repeated, with the Hurricanes winning their home game 16.9 105 to 12.9 81. A 12 disposal 3 goals game from Bloodied and Mobbs scoring the only 3 goals of his career were the highlights in this match. The Hurricanes got a free pass to the grand final and there they met ... the 7th Wonders, who the Hurricanes beat 8.17 65 to 8.7 55. Also fun trivia fact: The 7th Wonders and Hurricanes met 5 times in S2 in official matches which is the equal most times two teams have versed each other in one season.
Pictured: The SFA after learning that fun fact and myself being supportive.
In round 26 of the 4th season (yes you read that right, 26 rounds, the first couple of seasons of qooty was a crazy time from the outside looking in) the Alberton Swamprats and Titans met in a potentially do or die matchup for the Titans who were only holding onto 7th by percentage, and a match which for the Swamprats was as pointless as a qooty match could be with them locking up 6th earlier in the season. The importance of the match couldn't be understated for the Titans with stmookeyj summing it up:
The Titans didn't heed those words and got belted away from home 17.11 113 to 10.3 63. Luckily for stmookeyj, the two teams who could have kicked the Titans out of finals also lost, meaning they got an undeserved 7th place and a do or die matchup against the team who belted them by 50 points the week prior. The Titans through 4 goals to dees_best and the very descriptively named Eagle_Fan did manage to get revenge and win 13.5 93 to 11.8 74. They were knocked out the next week by...
We fast forward to S7 for the third occurrence of this, with the West Coast Wonders (Yes. I will be writing this name a lot in this thread) coming up against the Gumbies FFC in the final round of the minor season. It was the classic final round set up for both teams with the Wonders fighting with the Swamprats and Demons for the final two spots in the 8 and the Gumbies needing only a win to secure themselves a top 4 spot and a double chance. As we know what this thread is about, it doesn't take a (very stable) genius to guess the Wonders win that match up by 57 points (16.18 114 to 7.15 57). @BluesFan4 managed 5 goals in this affair, and some little known spud named cats2rise managed 2 kicks and 16 handballs for the Gumbies in what I am sure the qooty pundits of that time described as a cowardly game. It didn't get better for young C2R as the Gumbies would proceed to get bundled out in the elimination final, losing to the Wonders 10.14 74 to 15.15 105. It is worth noting the Wonders had 2 players named lyall in this game, however, even if a goal penalty was retrospectively added in, they still win this game by 7 points. Things didn't get better for Cats2Rise either, as he gave away as many free-kicks as he had kicks and deservedly spent 30% of the game looking like this:
Despite winning this, the Wonders were knocked out by the Dragons in the semi-final rather comfortably. Even their disrespect of the rules couldn't save them.
After S8 the league shrunk down to 8 teams with 5 teams in the finals due to Las Vegas Bears, Alberton Swamprats, and AFL All Stars folding (RIP in peace to those bots), as well as the merger of Southern Shark and Dragons. Despite this change and the higher probability of this occurring, it didn't happen. You'd have to wait until S14 when the league was operating with a 4 team final series that this would occur, with the Baghdad Bombers coming up against, you've guessed it, the West Coast Wonders. For the Bombers, this was a match which was only there to pad the stats of the players who were participating, whereas the Wonders were fighting for their survival in the 4 with the Gumbies on equal points.
I'll let ShaunDuggan sum up this game:
That's pretty much how it went down for the Wonders who were beaten by 5 goals against the Bombers and now relying on the Gumbies to screw up to make finals. Now if you know anything about the history of the SFA, you'd know the qooty gods take a lot of enjoyment out of making the Gumbies miserable, and because of this they proceeded to get belted by 65 points to gift the Wonders 4th. In fact that Duggs post could even sum up the elimination final as the Bombers backed up the previous week to win 18.19 129 to 14.12 96. Shadow Man played one of the greatest ruck performances here amassing 20 hitouts, 37 disposals and scoring 2 goals 5. DemonJim only mimicked one of those things and unfortunately for the Wonders it was Jum scoring 2 goals 6. We were lucky enough to dig up footage of one of the attempts for goal from Jum here:
The Bombers ended up hitting a rich vein of form after this win and ended up winning one of the highest-scoring grand finals in SFA history, defeating the Demons 7.6 48 to 3.9 27. That's their full-time scores, not half time.
At some point this week I'll add part 2 as well as compile some of the stats of who has participated in these matches. There might even be a pie chart if I can find something to plot a pie-chart about.
*I'll add a caveat, I've purposely ignored planned double-ups which occurred in the middle of S7 and a couple sporadically spread out in the early seasons which would also meet this condition. This was because I think the random element of these matchups, in which you need an entire season of results to occur in such a way that two teams finish in the right spots after the minor round is a key element of why this is a rather special occurrence. I.e. The qooty gods have either blessed or given the middle finger to these teams depending on how they feel about their opposition.
The first of these matchups occurred in season 2 between the 7th Wonders (now West Coast Wonders) coming up against the Hurricanes (now who are nothing but a footnote in history). The 7th Wonders took out the round 14 match 17.11 113 to 13.10 88 away from home thanks to a 4 goals 1 effort from Satay_Mat (I don't know who this poster is, but this is before team sheets so I only have how the sim hacked up names). Unfortunately, Satay_Mat did not even come close to repeating those heroics in front of his home crowd the next week, as he only managed 1 handball as both teams drew, 12.11 83 to 12.11 83. A 4 goal effort from Lioness and a 14 disposal effort from someone named Bloodied were the standout performances there. Naturally, this meant the match had to be repeated, with the Hurricanes winning their home game 16.9 105 to 12.9 81. A 12 disposal 3 goals game from Bloodied and Mobbs scoring the only 3 goals of his career were the highlights in this match. The Hurricanes got a free pass to the grand final and there they met ... the 7th Wonders, who the Hurricanes beat 8.17 65 to 8.7 55. Also fun trivia fact: The 7th Wonders and Hurricanes met 5 times in S2 in official matches which is the equal most times two teams have versed each other in one season.
Pictured: The SFA after learning that fun fact and myself being supportive.
In round 26 of the 4th season (yes you read that right, 26 rounds, the first couple of seasons of qooty was a crazy time from the outside looking in) the Alberton Swamprats and Titans met in a potentially do or die matchup for the Titans who were only holding onto 7th by percentage, and a match which for the Swamprats was as pointless as a qooty match could be with them locking up 6th earlier in the season. The importance of the match couldn't be understated for the Titans with stmookeyj summing it up:
The Titans didn't heed those words and got belted away from home 17.11 113 to 10.3 63. Luckily for stmookeyj, the two teams who could have kicked the Titans out of finals also lost, meaning they got an undeserved 7th place and a do or die matchup against the team who belted them by 50 points the week prior. The Titans through 4 goals to dees_best and the very descriptively named Eagle_Fan did manage to get revenge and win 13.5 93 to 11.8 74. They were knocked out the next week by...
We fast forward to S7 for the third occurrence of this, with the West Coast Wonders (Yes. I will be writing this name a lot in this thread) coming up against the Gumbies FFC in the final round of the minor season. It was the classic final round set up for both teams with the Wonders fighting with the Swamprats and Demons for the final two spots in the 8 and the Gumbies needing only a win to secure themselves a top 4 spot and a double chance. As we know what this thread is about, it doesn't take a (very stable) genius to guess the Wonders win that match up by 57 points (16.18 114 to 7.15 57). @BluesFan4 managed 5 goals in this affair, and some little known spud named cats2rise managed 2 kicks and 16 handballs for the Gumbies in what I am sure the qooty pundits of that time described as a cowardly game. It didn't get better for young C2R as the Gumbies would proceed to get bundled out in the elimination final, losing to the Wonders 10.14 74 to 15.15 105. It is worth noting the Wonders had 2 players named lyall in this game, however, even if a goal penalty was retrospectively added in, they still win this game by 7 points. Things didn't get better for Cats2Rise either, as he gave away as many free-kicks as he had kicks and deservedly spent 30% of the game looking like this:
Despite winning this, the Wonders were knocked out by the Dragons in the semi-final rather comfortably. Even their disrespect of the rules couldn't save them.
After S8 the league shrunk down to 8 teams with 5 teams in the finals due to Las Vegas Bears, Alberton Swamprats, and AFL All Stars folding (RIP in peace to those bots), as well as the merger of Southern Shark and Dragons. Despite this change and the higher probability of this occurring, it didn't happen. You'd have to wait until S14 when the league was operating with a 4 team final series that this would occur, with the Baghdad Bombers coming up against, you've guessed it, the West Coast Wonders. For the Bombers, this was a match which was only there to pad the stats of the players who were participating, whereas the Wonders were fighting for their survival in the 4 with the Gumbies on equal points.
I'll let ShaunDuggan sum up this game:
That's pretty much how it went down for the Wonders who were beaten by 5 goals against the Bombers and now relying on the Gumbies to screw up to make finals. Now if you know anything about the history of the SFA, you'd know the qooty gods take a lot of enjoyment out of making the Gumbies miserable, and because of this they proceeded to get belted by 65 points to gift the Wonders 4th. In fact that Duggs post could even sum up the elimination final as the Bombers backed up the previous week to win 18.19 129 to 14.12 96. Shadow Man played one of the greatest ruck performances here amassing 20 hitouts, 37 disposals and scoring 2 goals 5. DemonJim only mimicked one of those things and unfortunately for the Wonders it was Jum scoring 2 goals 6. We were lucky enough to dig up footage of one of the attempts for goal from Jum here:
The Bombers ended up hitting a rich vein of form after this win and ended up winning one of the highest-scoring grand finals in SFA history, defeating the Demons 7.6 48 to 3.9 27. That's their full-time scores, not half time.
At some point this week I'll add part 2 as well as compile some of the stats of who has participated in these matches. There might even be a pie chart if I can find something to plot a pie-chart about.
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