Stats observations

[emuboy]

Kane Batzloff is not a well-known name in the AFL nor would he be given that he never played a single senior game, but he does hold an interesting place in AFL history, for when selected by Essendon at Pick 7 in the 1992 mid season draft from the Southern Stingrays he became the very first player from the newly formed VSFL Under 18s teams (now the Talent League) to be drafted by an AFL team. He later played Reserve Grade football at both Melbourne and Collingwood.

So who was the first player from the Under 18's competition to play senior AFL football? This title goes to Mark Attard from the Eastern Ranges, selected by North Melbourne at pick 19 in the same 1992 mid-season draft. A number of other players were selected by AFL clubs in the same draft from the Western Jets and Northern Knights (none from Central Dragons or Geelong Falcons), but Attard was the only one to ever play senior football.

Attard's AFL tenure however would prove brief, making his debut for the Kangaroos in Round 22 1992 and playing in two more games in the last two rounds, but no more after that for a career of three AFL games. IIRC Mark Attard would later move to WA and play for East Fremantle, but I'm not sure of the exact details.

 

[SJ]

He played his last game (Rd. 22) on August 17 1991. He was a late withdrawal from the side the following week:
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That issue almost certainly is what kept him out for the final game of 1991. Then he retired:
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In two of his last three games he was officially BOG (3 votes), so he went out on a decent note, at least.

Where do you find 1990s copies of The Age?

 

[emuboy]

Today's 124-point demolition of North Melbourne by the Fremantle Dockers in Bunbury was the 5th time that this margin has come up. All have been played at different venues - but all have seen either North Melbourne or the Sydney Swans win or lose by this margin.

The first time the margin came up was in 1986, when the Sydney Swans gave Melbourne a 29.15-189 to 9.11-65 thrashing at the SCG, with Rod Carter kicking his only goal in a long career with Fitzroy and Sydney. Seven years later and it would be the Swans losing by 124-points, Sydney thrashed 35.19-229 to 16.9-105 by North Melbourne in an extraordinary high scoring game at Princes Park in Round 6. Mark Bayes was in both Sydney teams.

Ten years would go by until we saw again a 124-point win - this time by North Melbourne over Carlton at the Docklands in the last round of 2003 28.19-187 to 9.9-63, the losing Blues coached by North Melbourne's winning 1993 coach in Denis Pagan. The margin took another 21 years to come up again, this time in the last round of 2024, and saw Hawthorn crush the Kangaroos 26.14-170 to 7.4-46 in Launceston.

Now North Melbourne have been beaten by 124-points by Fremantle in Bunbury - 24-11-155 to 4.7-31 - and as was the case in the Hawthorn match in 2024 Alistair Clarkson was Kangaroos coach. Clarkson played in the Kangaroos 124-point win over Sydney back in 1993, while future Dockers coach Chris Connolly played in the Melbourne team that lost to Sydney by that margin in 1986.

 

[35Daicos]

Where do you find 1990s copies of The Age?

This site has The Age up to 2000: https://www.newspapers.com/

It is a 'pay site', however. A few of us regulars on the Footy History board have a subscription.