Stats observations

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You actually left off Portarlington in the Premiers to wooden spoon category. They won the flag in 1994 and dropped to last in 1995.
Their story since is really something to behold, and an unfortunate cycle of poor performances on the field.

In the 27 completed seasons since that 1994 premiership, Port has finished in the bottom two in 24 of those seasons. Their best performance has been back-to-back 7th-place finishes in 2007 and 2008. They are currently on a 68-game losing streak, which is the second largest in the state.

However, they have always been really strong off the field, have won numerous junior premierships, and have a solid supporter base and sponsor base. I think it's simply the tyranny of distance combined with the sustained low finishes making it hard to attract recruits.

2024 is the club's 150th season, and with a big points allowance from the league, they've loaded up with three ex-AFL players: Teia Miles, Connor Menadue and Jarryd Cachia. I genuinely hope they win at least a few games this year. The league has a sense of theatre in scheduling their opening match at home to fellow perennial cellar-dwellers Newcomb.

Thanks. I've added that. Phil's been adding new ladder stuff so I'll go on a bit of a dive again.
 

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10 biggest losses by reigning Premiers in their first game of the next season.

View attachment 1924293
There is an interesting contrast between the teams with the 9 highest wins against the reigning Premiers in the first game of the next season.

Three of the teams (Essendon in 1942, North Melbourne in 1977 and Carlton in 1982) went on to win the Premiership themselves. Brisbane in 2019 is the only one to play finals but not win the Premiership - finishing second but losing both finals matches.

The remaining 5 teams (Geelong in 1949, South Melbourne in 1959, Footscray in 1962, West Coast in 2000 and Fremantle in 2005) all failed to make the finals.

Wonder which category the GWS Giants will fall into in 2024?
 
I can't remember who talked about prime numbers here to inspire this but:

  • There have been 69 prime number games in the AFL. A "prime number game" is one where the scoreboard is entirely prime numbers.
  • The first one was Fitzroy 5.13.43 drew South Melbourne 5.13.43 in Round 7, 1897.
  • The most recent one was Sydney 13.11.89 def by Brisbane 17.11.113 in Round 7, 2022.
  • The only Grand Final was in 1990: Collingwood 13.11.89 def Essendon 5.11.41. Two other finals have been prime number games: The semi final between Geelong and St Kilda in 1968, and the qualifying final between Essendon and Richmond in 2001
  • The lowest achieveable prime number score is 2.5.17, but the lowest achieved in a prime number game has been 3.5.23 and 2.11.23 on five occasions.
  • The highest score in a prime number game was Geelong's 37.11.233 to Melbourne's 7.5.47 in Round 19, 2011. The next highest is merely 23.13.151, achieved three times.
  • Six prime number games were draws: Fitzroy vs South Mebourne in 1897, North Melbourne vs Fitzroy in 1933, North Melbourne vs Geelong in 1961, North Melbourne vs Hawthorn in 1985, Carlton vs Essendon in 2011, and Gold Coast vs Essendon in 2020.
  • Round 11, 1985 was the only time in history where there were multiple prime number games. North Melbourne drew Hawthorn and Essendon defeated Sydney. Unfortunately, they were on different days, so no two prime number games have been on the same day.
  • The longest wait between prime number games was ten years, between 1933 and 1943.
A "round prime number game" means the round is also a prime number. This has happened 31 times.

A "true prime number game" means that not only are the scores and round prime numbers, but even the day, month and year are prime numbers. This has not happened, but 2 out of 3 components of the date were prime on three occasions:

13/7/1929, Round 11: Hawthorn 5.13.43 def by Melbourne 7.11.53 - Unfortunately, 1929 is a product of 3 and 643.
27/5/1933, Round 5: St Kilda 13.19.97 def North Melbourne 11.17.83 - Unfortunately, 27 is a product of 3 and 9.
13/5/1961, Round 5, North Melbourne 11.17.83 def Carlton 17.7.109 - Unfortunately, 1961 is a product of 37 and 53.

Don't expect any true ones this year.
 
Attendances that were exact multiples of 1000:

Carlton vs. Geelong, 1987 - 31000
Port Adelaide vs. Melbourne, 1999 - 26000
Western Bulldogs vs. Collingwood, 2010 - 49000
Carlton vs. Adelaide, 2018 - 17000
Sydney vs Gold Coast, 2020 - 6000
 
Colour surnames of the AFL (incomplete list for sure):

Brown (91):
-Brown (70)
-Browne (12)
-Browning (5)
-Brownlees (2)
-Brownless (1)
-Brownhill (1)

White (54):
-White (46)
-Whitehead (4)
-Whitelaw (2)
-Whitely (1)
-Whitecross (1)

Green (52):
-Green (30)
-Greenwood (7)
-Greene (5)
-Greenhill (3)
-Greenham (2)
-Greenshields (1)
-Greening (1)
-Greenhalgh (1)
-Greenslade (1)
-Greensmith (1)

Gray/Grey (18):
-Gray (17)
-Grey (1)

Black (18):
-Black (7)
-Blackwell (2)
-Blackman (2)
-Blackmore (2)
-Blackwood (1)
-Blacklock (1)
-Blackburn (1)
-Blackham (1)
-Blackley (1)

Gold (10):
-Goldsmith (3)
-Golding (2)
-Goldstein (1)
-Goldsack (1)
-Goldin (1)
-Golds (1)
-Goldstraw (1)

Olive (8):
-Oliver (8)

Salmon (4)
-Salmon (4)

Plum (4)
-Plummer (2)
-Plumridge (1)
-Plumb (1)

Hazel (3)
-Hazel (1)
-Hazell (1)
-Hazelwood (1)

Scarlet (2):
-Scarlett (2)

Pink (2):
-Pink (2)

Umber (2):
-Umbers (2)

Orange (1):
-Orange (1)

Teal (1):
-Teal (1)
 
Connor7395's post reminded me of Geelong's two players whose careers each separated by around 70 years with names very similar.

Joe Sellwood (1930's) and Joel Selwood (07-22)

Tom Brownlees (1920's) and Bill Brownless (86-97)

Melbourne in the 70's and early 80's had Robert Flower and Laurie Fowler play many games together.
 

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The race to 1000......Let's see who cracks it first!

With Fitzroy, i'd imagine up to that point they must have had quite a good W/L ratio, maybe well into the 50's? Not too much success for them in this period sadly.
Well, Collingwood have a bye this week, while Geelong host North Melbourne. The Cats should be favoured to get there first!!
 
Connor7395's post reminded me of Geelong's two players whose careers each separated by around 70 years with names very similar.

Joe Sellwood (1930's) and Joel Selwood (07-22)

Tom Brownlees (1920's) and Bill Brownless (86-97)

Melbourne in the 70's and early 80's had Robert Flower and Laurie Fowler play many games together.

In the 1990s there was Geelong's Michael Mansfield who played for the Cats from 1990-1999, before transferring to Carlton and playing for the Blues for three seasons from 2000-2002. Also in the 1990s there was a Matthew Manfield, who played for Fitzroy in 1995 and 1996, Richmond in 1997 and 1998 and was listed by Collingwood in 1999 but never played for the Magpies.

Only once did Michael Mansfield and Matthew Manfield appear in the same game, this being Richmond vs. Geelong in Round 1 1997.
 
The race to 1000......Let's see who cracks it first!

With Fitzroy, i'd imagine up to that point they must have had quite a good W/L ratio, maybe well into the 50's? Not too much success for them in this period sadly.
Fitzroy's post war decades win percentages.
1946-55 - 51.59%
1956-65 - 38.25%
1966-75 - 32.06%
1976-85 - 44.93%
1986-96 - 32.92%
 
In the 1990s there was Geelong's Michael Mansfield who played for the Cats from 1990-1999, before transferring to Carlton and playing for the Blues for three seasons from 2000-2002. Also in the 1990s there was a Matthew Manfield, who played for Fitzroy in 1995 and 1996, Richmond in 1997 and 1998 and was listed by Collingwood in 1999 but never played for the Magpies.

Only once did Michael Mansfield and Matthew Manfield appear in the same game, this being Richmond vs. Geelong in Round 1 1997.
Famous for Gary Sr being selected to play the ressies that match, kicks 7 but partially tears a knee ligament. That proved to be the last game of footy he played in Geelong colours. The fact Geelong lost by just 8 points in the seniors with a starting 'fit' Gary Sr in the two's rankled greatly with me, and was costly at season's end when Geelong were 3% shy off top place with a 15-7 record. I believe that would only have been his second game in the ressies as a Cat, first would have been his 'comeback' game, Rd 11 1991 after choosing to come out of his retirement.
 
Just noticed that Chris Scott and Bomber Thompson have each endured 96 defeats in the coaching career at the Cats (Courtesy of AFL tables). Chris though has coached 53 more games, for 53 more wins in this time. Both have had three draws.
 
In 1995, there were a number of competitions that finished with the minor premier's win/loss record being the inverse of that of the wooden spoon as follows:

AFL - Carlton 20-2, Fitzroy 2-20
WAFL - Subiaco 19-2, Swan Districts 2-19
TAC Cup U 18's - Eastern Ranges 16-2, Tasmania 2-16
ARL - Manly 20-2, North Queensland 2-20

If not for a narrow, upset win by Coburg over Springvale preventing an undefeated season for the Scorpions it would have happened in the VFL as well. Springvale ended up 15-1, while at the other end of the ladder Williamstown went 0-16.

In the SANFL, Sturt's infamous 0-22 1995 didn't coincide with another team going undefeated at 22-0.
 
Fremantle had the same number of goals and behinds at the end of each quarter in their game against Port. I believe this is the first such instance since 2007.

35Daicos

I remember you made a red, white and blue table detailing all instances. Seventeen years could well be the longest gap between this happening if you'd be so kind as to update your table.
 
Fremantle had the same number of goals and behinds at the end of each quarter in their game against Port. I believe this is the first such instance since 2007.

35Daicos

I remember you made a red, white and blue table detailing all instances. Seventeen years could well be the longest gap between this happening if you'd be so kind as to update your table.
There have been 32 such scorelines 1897-2024
The previous one was in Round 22 2021: Essendon 2.2 8.8 12.12 14.14
Previous to that was in Round 8 2015: Adelaide 3.3 5.5 9.9 12.12
And before that was in Round 4 2007: Port Adelaide 3.3 7.7 9.9 12.12
The first was in Round 4 1897: Essendon 1.1 3.3 5.5 6.6
 
Fremantle had the same number of goals and behinds at the end of each quarter in their game against Port. I believe this is the first such instance since 2007.

35Daicos

I remember you made a red, white and blue table detailing all instances. Seventeen years could well be the longest gap between this happening if you'd be so kind as to update your table.
I'm having some "issues" with the spreadsheet I used for that post, and can't provide an updated version of that just now! This was my post in Weird football scores back in 2017:
1713086788256.png
 
Just found by accident that 2 of the 4 lowest team clearance counts in a single game!

Melbourne v Fremantle, Rd1 1998 just 15.
Fremantle v Melbourne, Rd1 1998 just 5.

Surely that can't be right? Maybe they counted them differently
 
Players who were on the ground for at least 99% of the season (since 2003, must have played every game):

100% - Tadhg Kennelly - Sydney - 2005
100% - Ben Rutten - Adelaide - 2005
100% - Shannon Watt - North Melbourne - 2003
99.9% - Troy Chaplin - Richmond - 2014
99.8% - James Clement - Collingwood - 2004
99.8% - James Clement - Collingwood - 2005
99.8% - Ben Rutten - Adelaide - 2009
99.8% - Matthew Scarlett - Geelong - 2004
99.8% - Bret Thornton - Carlton - 2004
99.7% - Matthew Lappin - Carlton - 2004
99.7% - Ben Rutten - Adelaide - 2010
99.5% - Leo Barry - Sydney - 2003
99.5% - Barry Hall - Sydney - 2004
99.5% - Matthew Lappin - Carlton - 2003
99.5% - Andrew McLeod - Adelaide - 2005
99.5% - Daniel Merrett - Brisbane - 2007
99.5% - Robert Murphy - Western Bulldogs - 2003
99.5% - Ben Rutten - Adelaide - 2006
99.4% - Brad Johnson - Western Bulldogs - 2003
99.4% - Heritier Lumumba - Collingwood - 2008
99.4% - David Teague - Carlton - 2004
99.4% - Callum Wilkie - St Kilda - 2023
99.3% - Dale Morris - Western Bulldogs - 2006
99.3% - Matthew Scarlett - Geelong - 2003
99.2% - Mark Chaffey - Richmond - 2003
99.1% - Tom Harley - Geelong - 2004
99.1% - Chris Johnson - Brisbane - 2005
99.0% - Craig Bolton - Sydney - 2004
99.0% - Craig Bolton - Sydney - 2005
99.0% - Anthony Koutoufides - Carlton - 2003
99.0% - Andrew McLeod - Adelaide - 2007
99.0% - Chris Newman - Richmond - 2005
99.0% - Warren Tredrea - Port Adelaide - 2005
99.0% - Greg Tivendale - Richmond - 2003

Only happened three times since 2010.
Chaplin spent anywhere between 100 and 167 seconds on the bench in Round 14, 2014.
Between 2004 and 2011, Ben Rutten played 167 games. He only sat down on the bench in nine of them (twice due to injury). And after the 2011 season, he never played 100% of game time again.
 

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