Stats observations

[RedmanWasHere]

Unbelievably, 5 years after this post, there's still a Lewis on Sydney's list.

Make it 2 Lewis' now.

 

[mianfei]

McKenna's 143 goals in 1970, remains the highest total not to win the Coleman medal....It is still the 5th highest total in the game's history

More than that, McKenna missed effectively three games. He was injured early in Round 5 against Melbourne and missed Round 6 against North Melbourne and Round 7 against Fitzroy. All those games were against teams that finished 1970 in the bottom four, and although the Melbourne game was played during a very heavy second-half rainstorm, the North and Fitzroy games were played in favourable conditions.

If McKenna had maintained his record of 142 goals in 21 games against the Kangaroos and Lions, he would have finished 1970 with 155 goals – five ahead of Pratt and Hudson. Given that Collingwood in his absence kicked 17-30 – including an equal record sixteen behinds in the third quarter – against the Kangaroos, McKenna would likely have kicked double figures and finished close to 160 goals.

Interestingly, despite 1970 being a relatively low-scoring season – the average of 87 points was the lowest between 1969 and 2013 – it featured the highest home-and-away goal aggregate in Hudson’s 146, as well as McKenna’s total that was the highest not to be leading goalkicker.

 

[adammania9]

Personal level, in the year I (2010) and my father (1977) had turned 18, Collingwood played in a drawn grand final.

Just saw this post quoted and thought I'd pitch in with a similar stat (more like fact as opposed to stat). My father's first grand final he attended was the 1977 grand final and the first that his two sons attended was the 2010 grand final, both draws. I have no idea why he attended 1977 however, seeing as he grew up an Essendon supporter.

 

[emuboy]

In the 7 years from 2010-2016 inclusive, there were remarkably 7 different NRL premiers for each season. These were St George Illawarra (2010), Manly (2011), Melbourne (2012), Sydney Roosters (2013), South Sydney (2014), North Queensland (2015) and Cronulla in 2016.

The AFL/VFL has never had a run of 7 different premiers in 7 years, but twice have had 6 different premiers in 6 years. The first time was in the 1960s, with Geelong (1963), Melbourne (1964), Essendon (1965), St Kilda (1966), Richmond (1967) and Carlton (1968). The second time was in the 2000s and remarkably spanned the same years, with the Brisbane Lions (2003), Port Adelaide (2004), Sydney Swans (2005), West Coast Eagles (2006), Geelong (2007) and Hawthorn (2008).

In the other major competitions the WAFL had a run of 6 premiers in 6 years from 1977-1982, when Perth (1977), East Perth (1978), East Fremantle (1979), South Fremantle (1980), Claremont (1981) and Swan Districts (1982) taking home those premierships. Interestingly there were just 8 WAFL teams then (Peel Thunder and West Coast Eagles Reserves have since joined the competition) and the two teams that missed out in those years, Subiaco and West Perth had both won premierships in 1973 and 1975 respectively, so there was no long flag drought for any team at that stage.

The SANFL has tended to see teams dominate for certain times, mainly Port Adelaide Magpies but Sturt in the 1960s and Central Districts in the 2000s all won multiple premierships in close succession, but in the 1930s the SANFL could also boast 6 premiers in 6 years. The premiers were North Adelaide (1931), Sturt (1932), West Torrens (1933), Glenelg (1934), South Adelaide (1935) and Port Adelaide (1936).

The VFL/VFA have three times had 6 premiers in 6 years. The first time was from 1935-1940, when Yarraville (1935), Northcote (1936), Prahran (1937), Brunswick (1938), Williamstown (1939) and Port Melbourne premiers in those seasons. It happened again post World War 2, with the VFA premierships falling the way of Sandringham (1946), Port Melbourne (1947), Brighton (1948), Williamstown (1949), Oakleigh (1950) and Prahran (1951). The third example is far more recent, and took place from 2010-2015. North Ballarat (2010), Port Melbourne (2011), Geelong (2012), Box Hill (2013), Footscray (2014) and Williamstown (2015) won the flags in those seasons.

 

[emuboy]

The Melbourne Demons. Their WA cousins the Perth Demons. The South Adelaide Panthers. The Frankston Dolphins. The Western Jets. The Parramatta Eels. What do they have in common? All currently hold the record that nobody wants, that of the longest premiership drought in their respective competitions. It is pretty bad for Frankston, which only has one Second Division Premiership in 1978 to show for its efforts since entering the VFA in 1965. The Western Jets played in the first two Under 18 Grand Finals in 1992-1993, losing both to Geelong and Northern, and if they were thinking third time lucky, they haven't had a chance to test this theory, with the Jets not making a grand final in 26 years since then. And it would be interesting if the North Sydney Bears were still in the NRL and hadn't managed to break their drought - if they hadn't it would be 98 years.

I was thinking which teams have held this unwanted record for the longest current premiership drought in the AFL/VFL and in which seasons? Here we go:

1897: St Kilda, Geelong, South Melbourne, Carlton, Collingwood, Melbourne, Fitzroy
1898-1899: St Kilda, Geelong, South Melbourne, Carlton, Collingwood, Melbourne
1900-1901: St Kilda, Geelong, South Melbourne, Carlton, Collingwood
1902-1905: St Kilda, Geelong, South Melbourne, Carlton
1906-1908: St Kilda, Geelong, South Melbourne
1909-1924: St Kilda & Geelong
1925-1965: St Kilda
1966-1974: North Melbourne
1975-2004: South Melbourne/Sydney Swans
2005-2015: Western Bulldogs
2016-: Melbourne

 

[worbod]

Most goals in a season without gaining a Brownlow vote.

Home and Away Goals	Player	Club	Season
118	Gordon Coventry	Collingwood	1929
105	Gordon Coventry	Collingwood	1930
91	Doug Wade	North Melbourne	1974
90	Doug Wade	Geelong	1972
88	Sel Murray	North Melbourne	1941
83	Jack Moriarty	Fitzroy	1927
78	Gordon Coventry	Collingwood	1928
77	Gordon Coventry	Collingwood	1935
76	Mark Jackson	Melbourne	1982
69	Jack Titus	Richmond	1934
67	Lindsay White	Geelong	1941
67	Ian Brewer	Collingwood	1958

 

[35Daicos]

Gordon Coventry had to be unlucky not to get the vote when kicking 17 (in a game) in 1930, and 16 in 1929!

 

[emuboy]

From 1961-1988 inclusive, the VFA operated two divisions. A total of 25 clubs played in the VFA during the two division era, and the promotion and relegation system where in most years the Division 1 wooden spoon team would go to Division 2 and the Division 2 premiers to Division 1, led to some remarkable statistics and quirks in this competition as follows:

• Port Melbourne and the Sandringham Zebras were the only teams never relegated to Division 2. Thus they did not meet Brighton again after 1960, as the Penguins only played Division 2 before ending their tenure after 1964 replaced by the Caulfield Bears, nor did they ever meet the two short lived 1980s additions Kilsyth and Berwick.
• Box Hill were in Division 1 in 1961, but relegated after finishing bottom. It took the Mustangs 24 years to return to Division 1, achieved when they beat Oakleigh in the 1984 Division 2 Grand Final.
• Yarraville were the inaugural Division 1 Premiers in 1961 and held their Division 1 position until 1970 when they finished last and were relegated. The Eagles never got back to Division 1, losing Division 2 Grand Finals in 1977 and 1980, before a dramatic decline in the early 1980s saw them axed at the end of 1983.
• Waverley Panthers entered in 1961 playing Division 2, and twice were promoted to Division 1 without winning a lower grade Grand Final. The first time was in 1963, when Waverley lost the Division 2 GF to Preston, but both the Bullants and Panthers were promoted to Division 1 when Moorabbin were expelled from the league. Waverley narrowly avoided relegation in 1964, then shocked everyone by beating Port Melbourne for the 1966 First Division flag, before finishing runner up to Port the next year. In 1981 when the VFA reorganized the divisions, Waverley had finished runner up to Camberwell in Division 2 this year, but were promoted to Division 1. This tenure was not successful, with Waverley finishing winless in 1983. The Panthers again finished runner up in Division 2 against Prahran in 1987, but this time there was no reward for the Panthers, which left the VFA after this result.
• The Northcote Dragons were a team probably unimpressed by the 1963 promotion of Waverley. Northcote had finished last in 1963 Division 1, but given the Moorabbin situation probably thought they would stay in First Division. They were wrong, and spent 19 years in Division 2 before finally winning the Division 2 premiership in 1982. Unfortunately for the Dragons, it was all in vain - the VFA suspended promotion and relegation that season, so the Dragons had to stay in the lower division and would you believe it Waverley was the 1982 First Division wooden spoon team that got to stay in, the Panthers collecting back-to-back last places in 1982 and 1983.
• The Werribee Tigers went one better than their feline cousins the Waverley Panthers - they were promoted to Division 1 in 1981 without ever playing a Grand Final in Division 2, but were relegated again in 1985. Werribee never did play in a Grand Final in either division during these years, and only made its Grand Final debut in 1993.
• Frankston, despite having a huge growing population area and tipped to be a superpower, got into First Division by winning the 1978 Division 2 Grand Final 13 years after entering the VFA, and while never relegated again have yet to win a league premiership to this day.
• Preston won the 1965 Division 2 title, and it didn't take the Bullants long to make themselves a superpower when promoted, winning the 1968 and 1969 Division 1 flags.
• Mordialloc's tastes of Division 1 were brief. It was in the First Division in 1961 and 1962, had to wait until 1977 to win a Division 2 flag and go back up again, but this tenure in Division 1 lasted just one season, and the Bloods remained in Division 2 from this point.
• Williamstown were Division 2 premiers in 1969, and soared up the ladder in First Division in 1970, eventually finishing runner up to Prahran in the Grand Final.
• Williamstown had another remarkable promotion - relegation stat in the late 1970s, but unfortunately for the Seagulls, this was nothing to be proud of. After winning the 1976 Second Division premiership, Williamstown went up to Division 1, but finished last in 1977 and were relegated again. Returning to Division 2 for 1978, Williamstown finished this season in the lower grade in second last position, winning just 3 games for the season.
• Oakleigh were a superpower in the early 1970s, winning the 1972 Division 1 flag and finishing runner up in 1973 and 1974. However a quick slide to last in 1976 saw the Devils relegated, and suffer a frustrating run for the next 12 years trying to get back to Division 1, losing many Grand Finals and other finals along the way. When they finally did win a Division 2 flag, crushing the Sunshine Crows in 1988, the Oaks would have been going up anyway as this Division 2 ended this year after the withdrawal of many teams in 1987 and 1988.
• A promotion relegation quirk in the early 1980s prevented Springvale and Waverley from ever meeting. Springvale, which entered in 1982 along with Kilsyth, quickly made its mark on the league, winning the 1983 Division 2 Grand Final over Brunswick. Springvale went up to Division 1, and the winless Waverley went down. With Springvale never getting relegated back to Division 2 and Waverley never getting back to Division 1, the Scorpions and Panthers never played a single VFA match against each other.

 

[emuboy]

Daniel Bradshaw, a superstar for the Brisbane Lions in their golden era from 1999-2004, earns a permanent spot in the trivia books as the last of the Brisbane Bears players to retire, when he played his last game for the Sydney Swans in a losing semi final against the Western Bulldogs in 2010.

But did you know that Daniel Bradshaw was also the last Brisbane Bears player to debut? This was in Round 18 1996 against Richmond at Princes Park, Bradshaw playing against North Melbourne again at Princes Park the next week and his final of three matches for the Bears somewhat ironically against the Bears' future merger partner the Fitzroy Lions and again at Princes Park! He had quite an odd Bears career - three matches for the team, all wins and all at the same venue Princes Park.

So who was the last Fitzroy player to debut? He was a bit more obscure, and his name is Robert McMahon. He played just two games for Fitzroy (and in his career), debuting for the Lions in Round 18 1996 against the Bulldogs and playing his second and final match against the Brisbane Bears in Round 20 1996. That McMahon, the last ever Fitzroy debutant played just two games, one against the Lions' proposed 1989 merger partner the Bulldogs and his final game against the Bears was kind of strange.

Going back to 1914, who was the last University player to debut? There were actually two who debuted in Round 17 1914 against Fitzroy - Adrian Farmer and Gordon Morrissey - who played one and two career games respectively for the Students.

The Swans as South Melbourne and Sydney are obviously the same team, but who was the last player to debut for the Swans when they played as South Melbourne? This was Peter Melesso, who debuted in South's last game as a Melbourne team in Round 22 1981 against North Melbourne at the Lake Oval. It was the only senior game Melesso would play for the Swans, however he later played for both St. Kilda and the West Coast Eagles.

 

[Procrastinator35]

More than that, McKenna missed effectively three games. He was injured early in Round 5 against Melbourne and missed Round 6 against North Melbourne and Round 7 against Fitzroy. All those games were against teams that finished 1970 in the bottom four, and although the Melbourne game was played during a very heavy second-half rainstorm, the North and Fitzroy games were played in favourable conditions.

If McKenna had maintained his record of 142 goals in 21 games against the Kangaroos and Lions, he would have finished 1970 with 155 goals – five ahead of Pratt and Hudson. Given that Collingwood in his absence kicked 17-30 – including an equal record sixteen behinds in the third quarter – against the Kangaroos, McKenna would likely have kicked double figures and finished close to 160 goals.

Interestingly, despite 1970 being a relatively low-scoring season – the average of 87 points was the lowest between 1969 and 2013 – it featured the highest home-and-away goal aggregate in Hudson’s 146, as well as McKenna’s total that was the highest not to be leading goalkicker.

all True...However McKenna did play in 2 Finals games that year, while Hudson & Hawthorn never made the finals....Making his 146 goals all the more remarkable an achievement, at a better average than the 150 he kicked in 1971 from 24 games too.

 

[NonPhixion]

- 132 is the most free kicks in a single game. Ess vs South Melb R13 1977
- GC didn’t take a single mark I50 on Rd 12 2018 vs GWS. The only time this has ever happened.
-After 21 rounds Collingwood had a % of 181 in 2011. It plummeted 14% after losing by 96 points in the last round

 

[stemline]

So who was the last Fitzroy player to debut? He was a bit more obscure, and his name is Robert McMahon. He played just two games for Fitzroy (and in his career), debuting for the Lions in Round 18 1996 against the Bulldogs and playing his second and final match against the Brisbane Bears in Round 20 1996. That McMahon, the last ever Fitzroy debutant played just two games, one against the Lions' proposed 1989 merger partner the Bulldogs and his final game against the Bears was kind of strange

McMahon turned up on Hawthorn's list in 1997. Didn't play a game though. (just some useless additional info).

 

[emuboy]

Shayne Stevenson when recruited by Fitzroy must have wondered if he was jinxed, he never played in a single winning match for the Lions in his tenure there in the early 1990s. Stevenson played 7 games for Fitzroy in 1991, all by Round 9, and resulted in losses to Melbourne (131 points), Collingwood (59), Footscray (16), Richmond (24), Hawthorn (157), Sydney (77) and West Coast (99). He played two games each in the Lions improved 1992 and 1993 seasons, but in 1992 the losses were by 62 points to Footscray and 56 points to Hawthorn, and in 1993 he played in a 7-point loss to Geelong (the Lions trailing by 9 goals at one stage and a 62-point defeat to the Bulldogs.

Crossing to Hawthorn he finally experienced the winning feeling in 1994,1995 and 1996. But in 1997 the jinx was back, Stevenson playing 6 games in his final season for 6 Hawthorn losses.

 

[worbod]

Most successive seasons with a player kicking 50 or more goals for each club

Club	Successive seasons
Adelaide	4 (2014-2017)
Brisbane Lions	5 (2006-2010)
Carlton	6 (1968-1973)
Collingwood	16 (1925-1940)
Essendon	8 (1946-1953)
Fitzroy	13 (1977-1989)
Fremantle	4 (2005-2008)
Geelong	14 (1984-1997)
Gold Coast	1 (2016)
Greater Western Sydney	2 (2015-2016)
Hawthorn	15 (1982-1996)
Melbourne	12 (1930-1941)
North Melbourne	7 (1990-1996)
Port Adelaide	5 (2001-2005)
Richmond	10 (2010-2019)
St. Kilda	12 (2002-2013)
South Melbourne/Sydney	5 (1932-1936) & (2002-2006)
University	1 (1913)
West Coast	9 (2009-2017)
Western Bulldogs	7 (1982-1988)

 

[Wallaby]

Gordon Coventry had to be unlucky not to get the vote when kicking 17 (in a game) in 1930, and 16 in 1929!

Look, kicking goals is alright, but how were his pressure acts? Did he close down space quickly enough? I heard the umps were disappointed with some of his off-the-ball running.

 

[emuboy]

The VFA Second Division season of 1981 was a strange one.

Of the ten teams, the top 7 had positive win loss records and percentages over 100 from first placed Camberwell (14-4) to seventh placed Williamstown (9-8-1). However, from there things fell away dramatically for the bottom 3 teams.

Yarraville which finished 8th with 4-14 (an amazing slide given the Eagles were minor premiers and runner up in 1980), two wins coming against 9th placed Box Hill and two against 10th placed Sunshine. The Box Hill Mustangs won only twice going 2-16, both victories over Sunshine, while Sunshine took the wooden spoon after a winless 0-18 season. That the Crows went winless was of little surprise to anyone who went to their first match of the season against Waverley and saw the Panthers win over Sunshine by 290-points, 5231-343 to 8.5-53.

 

[ThePezDispenser]

For any number enthusiasts, I noticed they have Motlop wearing #44 when the game that was just on Foxfooty had him wearing 53 for Melbourne.

 

[emuboy]

VFA team the Waverley Panthers had a horror season in First Division in 1983, going winless and their percentage of 45 indicating how many heavy defeats they suffered.

The worst of the two losses were both amazingly by 204 points against Geelong West and Coburg, and even more remarkably the final scores in both games were 249 to 45. The scorelines were not completely identical, while both Geelong West and Coburg kicked 37.27-249 Waverley kicked 6.9-45 against Geelong West and 7.3-45 against Coburg, but to have two margins the same by over 200 points and the same aggregate score for both matches in the same season is still pretty extraordinary.

 

[emuboy]

Going into the year 2000, SANFL team Central Districts had only met one team in a grand final, Port Adelaide Magpies in back to back premiership deciders in 1995 and 1996, losing both of them.

After a decade of domination that saw Centrals play in every Grand Final from 2000-2011 inclusive, by 2010 the Bulldogs had played 7 of the 8 opposing clubs in at least one grand final. The Bulldogs met the WWT Eagles in 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2011, Sturt in 2002 and 2009, West Adelaide in 2003, North Adelaide in 2007, Glenelg in 2008 and Norwood in 2010, and beat all of these clubs with only Sturt in 2002 and WWT in 2006 and 2011 getting the better of the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs however never got another go at Port Adelaide during this dominant era, so have never beaten the Magpies in a Grand Final. The only side they have failed to meet in a Grand Final (discounting merger partners West Torrens and Woodville, and new team the Adelaide Crows Reserves which entered in 2013) is South Adelaide, with the Panthers not playing in a Grand Final since 1979.

 

[Derby103]

The North Melbourne ground hosted 529 matches between 1925 and 1985. On only 9 of those occasions did Arden Street boast the highest attendance of the round (just 1.7%). In contrast, the North ground featured the lowest crowd of the round 223 times (42.2%). Eight of Arden Street’s 9 ‘highest of the round’ came in the period from 1932 to 1953. That means that in the ground’s final 276 matches (over 32 years), it was able to attract the highest attendance of the round just once. That happened in round 21 1980 for the Francis Bourke blood match. I was one of the 23,682 there that day. It is strange that North’s great sides of the 70’s could not attract the highest crowd of the round to Arden Street (although they did come within 18 spectators of doing so in round 8 1974).

Over the period 1925-1986 (i.e. the classic era of 12 VFL clubs), the MCG registered the lowest crowd of the round just 30 times in 750 matches (4.0%). The MCG recorded the highest crowd of the round 309 times.

The Western Oval had the highest crowd of the round only once after 1962. That was in round 15 1986 when 21,963 attended the Footscray-Sydney match. That just edged out the crowd at the MCG for the Melbourne v Essendon game.

The South Melbourne ground had the highest attendance of round 18 1965 for the match against Collingwood. The Lake Oval lasted for another 16 seasons without attracting the highest crowd of the round.

Summary of highest and lowest attendances of the round by venue, 1925 - 1986

Venue	Total matches	Highest crowd	% highest	Lowest crowd	% lowest
Arden Street	529	9	1.7%	223	42.2%
Brunswick Street	378	47	12.4%	68	18.0%
Coburg	9	0	0.0%	4	44.4%
Corio Oval	144	4	2.8%	55	38.2%
Gabba	1	0	0.0%	0	0.0%
Glenferrie Oval	443	13	2.9%	184	41.5%
Junction Oval	509	56	11.0%	115	22.6%
Kardinia Park	405	31	7.7%	57	14.1%
Lake Oval	473	48	10.1%	103	21.8%
MCG	750	309	41.2%	30	4.0%
Moorabbin	203	19	9.4%	19	9.4%
Olympic Park	3	0	0.0%	1	33.3%
Princes Park	722	166	23.0%	83	11.5%
Punt Road	403	100	24.8%	43	10.7%
SCG	63	1	1.6%	33	52.4%
Toorak Park	13	0	0.0%	5	38.5%
VFL Park	352	114	32.4%	31	8.8%
Victoria Park	579	167	28.8%	31	5.4%
Western Oval	553	38	6.9%	65	11.8%
Windy Hill	563	65	11.5%	38	6.7%
Yarraville Oval	7	2	28.6%	1	14.3%

 

[worbod]

Tried to see if there was a previous mention of this stat but couldn't see anything, unless it's been posted in the early pages of this thread.

PLAYERS WHO HAVE WON THE FAIREST AND BEST AWARD IN TWO MAJOR LEAGUES

Player	Award	Year/s	Club	Competition	Award	Year/s	Club	Competition
David Bain	Sandover Medal	1988	East Perth	WAFL	Grogan Medal	1995, 1999	Southport	QAFL
Malcolm Blight	Magarey Medal	1972	Woodville	SANFL	Brownlow Medal	1978	North Melbourne	VFL
Nathan Buckley	Magarey Medal	1992	Port Adelaide	SANFL	Brownlow Medal	2003	Collingwood	AFL
Haydn Bunton senior	Brownlow Medal	1931, 1932, 1935	Fitzroy	VFL	Sandover Medal	1938, 1939, 1941	Subiaco	WAFL
Terry Cashion	Tasman Shields Trophy	1948, 1950, 1951	Longford	NTFA	Leitch Medal	1953	Sandy Bay	TFL
Albert Collier	Brownlow Medal	1929	Collingwood	VFL	Leitch Medal	1931	Canaore	TFL
Des Fothergill	Brownlow Medal	1940	Collingwood	VFL	Liston Trophy	1941	Williamstown	VFA
Sam Mitchell	Liston Trophy	2002	Box Hill	VFL	Brownlow Medal	2012	Hawthorn	AFL
John Platten	Magarey Medal	1984	Central Districts	SANFL	Brownlow Medal	1987	Hawthorn	VFL
Stan Pontifex	Magarey Medal	1932	West Torrens	SANFL	Tasman Shields Trophy	1938	City South	NTFA
Matt Priddis	Sandover Medal	2006	Subiaco	WAFL	Brownlow Medal	2014	West Coast	AFL
Barry Round	Brownlow Medal	1981	South Melbourne	VFL	Liston Trophy	1987	Williamstown	VFA
Bryan Waters	Liston Trophy	1959	Dandenong	VFA	Wander Medal	1968	Latrobe	NWFU

The Liston Trophy was known as The Recorder Cup in 1941 when Fothergill was the winner.

 

[emuboy]

Somebody always has to finish last, and in some years the wooden spoon team finishes clear last and in other years there is a close contest by a number of tail end teams to avoid finishing on the bottom of the ladder. There have been some terrible teams over the years, but interestingly some of the worst have had teams finishing close to them. GWS finished last in both 2012 and 2013 with 2-20 and 1-21 records with dismal percentages but they were not last by a long way by any stretch. In 2012 the AFL was remarkable for the number of bad teams, and fellow newcomer Gold Coast finished second last with 3-19, Melbourne never fired a shot going 4-18 and the Bulldogs and Port Adelaide both had 5 win seasons with many heavy defeats like the three teams that finished below them.

The GWS 1-21 2013 team had a close companion in second last Melbourne which finished 2-20. Melbourne players in the early 1980s would have a sense of de ja vu from this, as their last placed 1-21 1981 Demons team wasn't too far behind the second last 2-20 Bulldogs. Even the last team to go winless, Fitzroy in 1964 which went 0-18 had South Melbourne finish close to them, the 11th placed 2-16 Swans beating the Lions on two occasions.

Other times, a bottom team finishes a long way behind the second last team which is pretty demoralizing. Which is the largest margin by which a wooden spooner has finished last? In the AFL/VFL, this dubious honor goes to St. Kilda's winless 1902 team, which went 0-17 and 7 games behind Geelong, the Cats finishing 7-10. Interestingly, the other teams to miss the finals that year, South Melbourne and Carlton, also went 7-10 like the Cats.

Since then, there has never been a case of a bottom team finishing six games clear in last spot, but there have been some cases of bottom teams being 5 games behind second last, the most recent case being Fitzroy in 1995, which went 2-20 and finished 5 games plus over 30 percent behind 15th placed Hawthorn.

In the major state leagues, which teams have finished last by the greatest number of games? In the SANFL, South Adelaide's 1-21 team in 1988 finished 7 games last from the 8-14 West Torrens Eagles. Sturt's infamous 1995 team which went 0-22 finished 7 games behind the second last WWT Eagles, just to rub salt into the wounds.

The WAFL post WW2 has seen two teams finish 6 games last. One was Claremont in 1975, the Tigers going 3-18, 6 games behind their second last placed feline cousins the Subiaco Lions which finished 9-12. It must have motivated the Tigers, which have not finished last in 45 years since. Swan Districts had a dismal 1-17 season in 2002 and was 6 games behind the 7-11 Peel Thunder.

The Bendigo Gold finished the 2013 VFL season last and winless, 6 games behind Coburg. Things didn't improve much the next year for Bendigo, they were again winless this time last by 5 games and withdrew from the VFL at the end of 2014. Going back to the old days of the VFA, Oakleigh had a terrible 1-17 1992 season, and were 6 games behind the 7-11 Coburg and Frankston. Box Hill had many bad Division 2 seasons in the 1970s and early 1980s and their 1973 (0-18) and 1980 (1-17) teams were both last by six games.

However, the most spectacular case of a team being so much poorer than the opponents in its league would probably be Brighton in 1961. This was the first year of two divisions, with the VFA expanding into growing outer suburbs around this time. The VFA was getting too large for one league; some new teams such as Dandenong and Sunshine were finding life in the VFA a bit difficult, Preston and Prahran had had some poor season recently and Camberwell, Northcote and Brighton were really struggling long term, so these teams went into the new Division 2 along with a new club Waverley. Away from powerful teams like Port Melbourne, Williamstown, Sandringham, Oakleigh and Moorabbin, 7 of these teams benefited and were most competitive, but something went very wrong at Brighton. The Penguins went winless 0-18 with a percentage of 29 and an average losing margin of 103 points.

Brighton's 1961 team was 5 games behind second last placed Sunshine, not a record, but 5-13 Sunshine had a percentage of 96.8 indicating the Crows were very competitive. All other teams won 8 games or more, and all had percentages close to or over 100. The poor old Penguins narrowly avoided folding at season end and survived until the end of 1964, but were replaced by the Caulfield Bears from 1965.

 

[stmookeyj]

In the 7 years from 2010-2016 inclusive, there were remarkably 7 different NRL premiers for each season. These were St George Illawarra (2010), Manly (2011), Melbourne (2012), Sydney Roosters (2013), South Sydney (2014), North Queensland (2015) and Cronulla in 2016.

To take it even further, the Roosters last year became the first team to win back-to-back premierships in a unified competition since the Broncos of 1992-93. Of course they Broncos did go B2B in 1997-98 but as we know the competition was divided in 1997. In fact between 1998 and 2019 inclusive, only 4 teams have won multiple titles (Broncos 1998, 2000, 2006; Roosters 2002, 2013, 2018, 2019....having lost another 4 GF's in the same period; Manly in 2008 and 2011 and Melbourne 1999, 2012, 2017.....plus the titles from 2007 and 2009 that were stripped from them) and of the 16 current clubs only the Gold Coast Titans have failed to make a Grand Final (Parramatta and the NZ Warriors have lost 2 GF's, Canberra lost last year).

 

[emuboy]

The drawn game last night between Collingwood and Richmond was the first draw between the Magpies and Tigers since 1917, an astonishing 103 years.

It also breaks the longest draw drought between teams that have played a tied game before. The longest drought is Geelong and the Sydney/South Melbourne Swans which have never had a game end in a draw before since both entered in 1897.

 

[JP2]

The drawn game last night between Collingwood and Richmond was the first draw between the Magpies and Tigers since 1917, an astonishing 103 years.

It also breaks the longest draw drought between teams that have played a tied game before. The longest drought is Geelong and the Sydney/South Melbourne Swans which have never had a game end in a draw before since both entered in 1897.

It is also the lowest scoring draw since rd 10 1904, when Geelong and Carlton played out a 35-35 draw.