Ant Bear
Swamprat
- Dec 7, 2012
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- Port Adelaide
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- Port Magpies, Swamprats forever,
A Tale Of Two Cities
Gold City Royals vs Sin City Swamprats at SFA Park, Sunday December 13th 2020
The Story: At the end of season 15, the Sweet FA was running a skeleton competition, with only 8 participating teams and a four team finals series, and the game was stagnating. It had been this way since the Alberton Swamprats left the comp after season 9, taking the reviled AFL All-Stars with them. It was time for expansion, and Administrator boncer34 allowed two additional teams to enter the competition for Season 16. These teams were the reformed Alberton Swamprats, revived by MannumPower and Jonts, and a brand new club, the Gold City Royals, brought together by club founder Easty. These two clubs have shared a synergy ever since, culminating in this, the Season 30 Grand Final matchup.
Over the journey, these great rivals have played for a trophy, the Golden Rat. The Royals have traditionally dominated the head-to-head match-ups, winning 16 times to the Swamprats 9. And there has been one draw, famously in the final round of S19 which kept the Swamprats out of the finals. The clubs have never met in any final before, and in fact have only participated in the same finals series 3 times, in S22, 28 & 29. Despite the H2H record, the Swamprats have indisputably the better league record, with 9 finals campaigns against the Royal’s 6, along with 2 premierships from 3 Grand Finals, whilst the Royals have never progressed beyond the Preliminary Final stage. Until now…
How they got here: Gold City Royals finished top of the ladder after the minor round with a 12-4 record, and were drawn against the Roys in a Qualifying Final. They dominated, with the #stackedsix holding the Roys to just one goal at half time enroute to a 24 point victory. With the subsequent week off, the Royals prevailed over the Baghdad Bombers in a nailbiting Preliminary final, by a single point to progress to the club’s first ever Grand Final. Meanwhile, the Sin City Swamprats lost their final 3 regular season games but still finished 3rd at 10-6. They took care of the Furies in their Qualifying final, drawing away to win by 7 goals and also earn a week off. In the Prelim against the Gumbies, the Swamprats midfield ran rampant, as they eliminated the Gumbies by 15 points to move into their third decider in 4 seasons. The Royals are currently on a 5 game winning streak, while the Swamprats sit on 2 wins.
Who To Watch: A banquet of star qooty players adorn this game. A casual glance at the lineups reveal 6 Mobbs Medals, 5 beez Trophies, 3 Hall of Famers…and ant555, who alone accounts for 7 premierships and 2 Deestroy Medals. From the Royals, CakeEater has had a fantastic season at CHF, The Filth Wizard won the Fred Medal and Marlowe is right in the mix for the Mobbenfuhrer Medal. At Sin City, the follower combination of Nunez and ant555 have been superb all season, and GotTheGoodes has been prolific as a centreman. But most interest in this game will centre on the astonishing number of players who have played for both clubs. On the Royals side, all of Kennedy Parker, spookism, ShaunDuggan and Noobz0r have spent significant amounts of time at the Swamprats, whilst from Sin City, akkaps was an original Royal, and Power Raid also played a season at Gold City before finding a spiritual home at Alberton.
Fast Facts: (Shamelessly copied from Ljp86 in the Ladder thread)
• The Season 30 Grand Final will be Gold City Royals' first season decider and Sin City Swamprats' sixth overall.
• The Season 30 Grand Final will be Gold City Royals' first GF having never previously won a preliminary final. Sin City Swamprats' most recent Grand Final appearance was in Season 29.
• Sin City Swamprats are 3-2-1 in Grand Finals with their most recent flag coming last season.
• This will be Gold City Royals and Sin City Swamprats first meeting in a finals fixture. Season 30 is just the fourth season that the Royals and Swamprats have competed in the same finals series, three of those four occasions have come in the last four seasons.
• In the previous 29 seasons, the premiership has been won by the team finishing in first position on the ladder four times while the club that has finished in third position on the ladder has won the flag on six occasions.
• Season 30 will represent the eighth time that first has played third in the Grand Final.
• The home team has won 14 of the 29 previous Grand Finals with the away side winning in 15 of those games. There was also the infamous draw in the Season 05 GF between Fighting Furies and Alberton Swamprats. The Furies won the replay by 11 points.
• The average home team score in Grand Finals is 103.37 points. The average away team score is 101.40 points.
• The average margin in all Grand Finals is 23.90 points.
• Highest Winning Total - Mount Buller Demons 28.19 (187) vs Fighting Furies in Season 26.
• Lowest Winning Total - Baghdad Bombers 7.6 (48) vs Mount Buller Demons in Season 14.
• Highest Losing Total - Fighting Furies 19.17 (131) vs West Coast Wonders in Season 15.
• Lowest Losing Total - Mount Buller Demons 3.9 (27) vs Baghdad Bombers in Season 14.
• Average Winning Score - 115.21 points.
• Average Losing Score - 90.66 points.
• Highest Winning Margin - 87 points by Mount Buller Demons vs Fighting Furies in Season 26.
• Lowest Winning Margin - one point by Geelong Gumbies vs Fighting Furies in Season 16; by Sin City Swamprats vs Mount Buller Demons in Season 29.
• Highest Cumulative Score - 287 points (Season 26 - Mount Buller Demons vs Fighting Furies).
• Lowest Cumulative Score - 75 points (Season 14 - Mount Buller Demons vs Baghdad Bombers).
• Average Cumulative Score - 204.77 points.
• SFA Grand Finals are generally quite close with only eight games decided by more than five goals. However, four of those victories have come in the last seven seasons.
• The current cumulative margin from all Grand Finals currently stands at 717 points.
• The winning team has kicked 100 points or more in 20 of the last 23 Grand Finals.
TIP: Call me biased, but based on greater finals experience, and the presence of Mr Finals ant555, Swamprats to win by 20 points. Put a pineapple on it.
Captains The Filth Wizard and philreich – Please submit your team sheets in the official thread by 11.59pm on Thursday 10/12/20
