Amazing coincidences in football

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Only two teams under the current finals system [last 25 seasons] have won a premiership from outside the top four- Bulldogs 2016 and Lions today. It's quite the coincidence that Josh Dunkley played in both!
Fun fact - fourth has never won the flag in the current system. It’s actually the top three that a QF flag team always comes from.

Also Dunkley as a player being passed over as a father-son selection by the Swans to then go and beat them twice in GFs is kind of freaky.

Another thing - in the last two Swan GFs they have lost to a team containing a player who has won a GF against them previously at a different club eight years earlier -

Isaac Smith 2014 and 2022 (also played in a GF loss against the Swans in 2012).

Josh Dunkley 2016 and 2024.

This is a very rare occurrence. The only other example I know of is Doug Wade who won two flags Vs HFC; as a Cat in 1963 and as a Kangaroo in 1975. He’s also amazingly lost GFs to Richmond with both of his teams in 1967 and 1974.
 
Fun fact - fourth has never won the flag in the current system. It’s actually the top three that a QF flag team always comes from.

Also Dunkley as a player being passed over as a father-son selection by the Swans to then go and beat them twice in GFs is kind of freaky.

Another thing - in the last two Swan GFs they have lost to a team containing a player who has won a GF against them previously at a different club eight years earlier -

Isaac Smith 2014 and 2022 (also played in a GF loss against the Swans in 2012).

Josh Dunkley 2016 and 2024.

This is a very rare occurrence. The only other example I know of is Doug Wade who won two flags Vs HFC; as a Cat in 1963 and as a Kangaroo in 1975. He’s also amazingly lost GFs to Richmond with both of his teams in 1967 and 1974.
In another universe, dunkley was drafted by the swans, tagged neale out of existence and annihilated us today.
 
Fun fact - fourth has never won the flag in the current system. It’s actually the top three that a QF flag team always comes from.

Also Dunkley as a player being passed over as a father-son selection by the Swans to then go and beat them twice in GFs is kind of freaky.

Another thing - in the last two Swan GFs they have lost to a team containing a player who has won a GF against them previously at a different club eight years earlier -

Isaac Smith 2014 and 2022 (also played in a GF loss against the Swans in 2012).

Josh Dunkley 2016 and 2024.

This is a very rare occurrence. The only other example I know of is Doug Wade who won two flags Vs HFC; as a Cat in 1963 and as a Kangaroo in 1975. He’s also amazingly lost GFs to Richmond with both of his teams in 1967 and 1974.

Gerard Neesham, the inaugural coach of the Fremantle Dockers and himself a Sydney Swans player for one season in 1992 had an astonishing WAFL Grand Final record as follows:

  • Playing for Swan Districts, Neesham would play in Grand Final victories over Claremont in 1983 and his former team East Fremantle in 1984 but would play in a losing Grand Final against South Fremantle in 1980.
  • Playing for East Fremantle, Neesham would play in a winning GF team over Subiaco in 1985, but a loss by the Sharks to Subiaco in 1986. He also played in East Fremantle's losing side to Perth in 1977, the Demons most recent premiership to date.
  • Playing for Claremont as captain-coach in 1987, 1988 and 1989, Neesham's Tigers would defeat Subiaco in 1987, lose to the Lions in 1988 (the fourth year in a row Neesham had met the Lions on GF Day), then thrash South Fremantle in 1989.
  • As non-playing coach of Claremont in the 1990s, Neesham's Tigers would lose to Swan Districts in 1990, defeat Subiaco in an absolute rout in 1991 and a similar demolition of West Perth in 1993.

So as player and coach, Neesham would win flags four times with Claremont but would win against them the only time he played against them in a GF in 1983. He would win three times over Subiaco once with East Fremantle and twice with Claremont and lose to them twice once with East Fremantle and the other time with Claremont. Neesham's experience with Swans saw wins with them over his other teams Claremont and East Fremantle in 1983 and 1984, but a loss to them with Claremont in 1990. His two GF encounters with South Fremantle saw Swan Districts thrashed by the Bulldogs in 1980, but a similar trouncing by Claremont over South Fremantle in 1989. Neesham was never able to best Perth in a Grand Final with the Demons trouncing the Sharks in 1977 but was never defeated by West Perth in a GF, the Tigers easily winning the 1993 premiership decider over the Falcons. The only WAFL team that Neesham had no Grand Final encounters with either as a player or a coach is the East Perth Royals.
 
The Stuart Dew GF Olympic leap year stat continues

2000 - Central District (Premiers)
2004 - Port Adelaide (Premiers)
2008 - Hawthorn (Premiers)
2012 - Sydney (Premiers)
2016 - Sydney (Runners-up)
2020 - Gold Coast (14th)
2024 - Brisbane (Premiers)

2020 was an outlier with Dew having a 5-1 record with Olympic Leap Year premierships
 
Red and White teams seem to do badly in Grand Finals. The Sydney Swans yesterday lost their fourth Grand Final post 2012, three of these by big margins, with this adding to a generally poor GF by the Sydney Swans prior to this with the Swans in their South Melbourne days losing many more grand finals than they won.

In lower grades South Melbourne/Sydney never won a reserves grade premiership, and just once in the Under 19s, way back in 1956. The NEAFL came and went pretty fast but in its 9 years from 2011-2019 the Sydney Swans were runners up five times without winning a grand final once.

WAFL team South Fremantle have a very poor Grand Final record after the 1950s, with some premiership droughts, heavy grand final losses and upset losses in other GF's that the Bulldogs should in theory have won comfortably. SANFL team the North Adelaide Roosters have a number of terrible Grand Final performances to their name, and even when North won their two few and far between premierships in 1991 and 2018 both grand finals were mired in controversy.

VFL team the Northern Bullants (previously Preston) also has an unflattering Grand Final record and hasn't won the premiership for 40 years, while Geelong West in their VFA tenure lost more Grand Finals than they won.

NRL team the St George Dragons certainly had no problems winning premierships in a golden era from the mid-50s to mid-60s, but struggled to do so before that and afterwards, save for two quick premierships in 1977 and 1979. However this short burst of success would lead the Dragons into a 30 year premiership drought with a number of Grand Final losses both for St George on its own and when it entered into a joint venture with the Illawarra Steelers (which never won a senior GF) from 1999. The Dragons finally broke the hoodoo against the Roosters in the 2010 GF, but since then the Dragons have mostly struggled, and never really challenged for another GF position in 14 seasons since then.
 

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Amazing coincidences in football

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