Just did a quick check on the status of this. Records for the following 'contenders' against top 4 sides between 2020 and 2023:The Black and White Noise nails it again, in his blog article today.
If you finish top 4 you need to win 3 in a row against other top 4 sides, starting with winning the QF to give yourself the best chance to win a flag against other top 4 sides. Occasionally a top 4 side losses the QF and makes it to the GF.
The triple heavy weight champions in Brisbane in 2003, Hawthorn in 2015 and Richmond in 2020, lost the QF and then won a flag under the current finals system that started in 2000.
In 2005 and 2006 when Sydney and West Coast were in that 10 game run of tight finishes, the side that lost the QF won the GF rematch, by the same margin, ie Sydney 4pts in 2005 and WCE by 1pt in 2006.
We are none of the above.
If you finish 5th to 8th then you will face a top 4 side in the SF, win that, then again in the PF and so far since 2000, you have a 100% chance in the GF of playing a top 4 side.
Stuff Rucci and co banging on about Hinkley's great minor round win record of 60%. If you can't win 3 in a row against top 4 sides in the minor round, for over a decade, you aren't all of a sudden going to start doing it in September.
The Big Games - The Black And White Noise
Fos Williams famously said “the other 17 (minor round games), unless we can make this one (the grand final) a certainty, don’t mean a thing!” He and John (Jack) Cahill built a legacy at Port Adelaide built around turning up in the big games, against the big opponents. They built their list and...theblackandwhitenoise.com
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And given a 22% winning record against top 4 teams over Hinkley’s tenure, and the fact that 3 such wins in a row are required to win a premiership, the lack of belief is perhaps not surprising. In fact if you do the maths on winning 3 of those games in a row, with a 22% win rate, it works out to a roughly 2% chance of winning a flag, even after finishing in the top 4 at the end of the minor round.
Once again this is not new. We spoke about it at the end of 2023 in our article “the games that mean a thing”.
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Current club President David Koch has been quoted as saying “We don’t want players who are living their dream just by playing AFL footy, we want players who want to win a premiership. If they’re not prepared… they’re not players that we want”.
Let’s hope this thinking extends to the coaches, board members and presidents, because as previously stated it takes 3 wins in a row against top 4 quality teams to win a flag.
Brisbane: 8-9
Melbourne: 6-10
Geelong: 8-9
Collingwood: 6-12
Port: 4-12
So even Collingwood, who finished 17th in 2021 have a better record against top 4 sides than we have in that time. Only other side of note is Melbourne who went 0-4 in both 2022 and 2020.