Stats observations

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Clayton Lamb had a long SANFL career with West Adelaide and Glenelg during the 1980s and 1990s, but at AFL level made just one appearance, in a match for the Adelaide Crows against the West Coast Eagles at Subiaco Oval in Round 5 1991, a strange game weather-wise that started off in sunny conditions in the 30s and finished in teeming rain. The Eagles doubled the Crows' score and won by 65 points, 19.16-130 to 9.11-65. Lamb isn't a particularly common surname, so it was quite remarkable that in Clayton Lamb's only AFL game there was another player with the same name in the opposing team, West Coast Eagle Dwayne Lamb.
 
Examples of players whose 2nd best goalkicking haul in a match is at least 4 less than their best (this list is definitely missing a few players):

Joel Amartey - 9 and 4
Lou Armstrong - 8 and 4
Jack Baggott - 12 and 6
Simon Beaumont - 8 and 3 (worth noting Beaumont kicked all his goals in the first half)
Jim Bicknell - 5 and 1
Geoff Blethyn - 11 and 7
Phil Carman - 11 and 7
Horrie Clover - 13 and 8
Martin Cross - 8 and 4
Scott Cummings - 14 and 10
Peter Daicos - 13 and 9
Lou Daily - 10 and 5
Harry Davie - 13 and 9
Allan Davis - 10 and 6
Fred Fanning - 18 and 11
Fred Gallagher - 12 and 6
Vin Gardiner - 10 and 6
Jack Graham - 10 and 5
Ron Grove - 10 and 3
Harry Harker - 10 and 6
Verdun Howell - 9 and 5
Vince Irwin - 10 and 6
Sam Kekovich - 10 and 6
Greg Kennedy - 12 and 8
Mark LeCras - 12 and 6
Mark Lee - 9 and 5
Jim McShane - 11 and 3
Harold Robertson - 14 and 7
Lou Sleeth - 6 and 2
Norm Smith - 12 and 8
Larry Spokes - 9 and 4
Doug Strang - 14 and 10
Kelvin Templeton - 15 and 9
Robert Walls - 10 and 6
 

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Collingwood with yet again a narrow victory, so i had to check out their recent record.

Starting from Rd 11 2022, the Pies have played a rather remarkable 28 matches decided by 12 points or less. Of those, they have won 23 of them, and have had two draws. Of the three defeats, two were in the QF and PF of the 2022 Finals against Geelong and Sydney respectively, and last year in the King's birthday clash with the Dees.

I would venture to say that in any sport worldwide that isn't baseball or soccer, a run of narrow wins like that to such an overwhelming level of success is absolutely unprecedented. It truly is staggering, and beyond luck. I would love to know just what that secret to success is, like Graham Richardson said in the 1996 state election coverage, I don't understand it, but you have to admire it.
 
In 2019, Collingwood and Essendon drew a total of 177,646 spectators across their two games - 92,241 on Anzac Day and 85,405 for their Round 23 clash. This is the record aggregate attendance for two Home & Away games in the same season.

In 1993, Collingwood and Essendon drew a smaller aggregate attendance of 175,211 spectators - 87,638 on Easter Monday in Round 3 and 87,573 on a Friday night in Round 18. However, the 87,573 crowd is the record-high "smallest" attendance for teams that have met more than once in a Home & Away season.

Both of these records could be broken on Friday night.

Collingwood and Essendon drew a crowd of 93,644 spectators on Anzac Day this year, so a crowd of over 84,002 on Friday will break the aggregate attendance over two games. A crowd above 87,573 will beat both records and will be the first time that two clubs have drawn over 180,000 fans across two Home & Away games in the same season.

If these records are broken, they may not last for long.

Carlton and Collingwood drew 88,362 spectators to their Round 9 clash, so a bumper crowd again in Round 21 could set new records.

And while Carlton and Essendon drew 88,510 spectators to their King's Birthday Eve clash, they cannot set a record as they do not meet again this season.
 
Geelong have won 104 games against each of the traditional powerhouses of the VFL/AFL, being Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. Indeed their win tallies over seven clubs all fall between 103 (Fitzroy) and 108 (Tigers and Dogs). Remains to be seen if they can break the deadlock with a win over the Pies this week though.
 
In Round 10, Essendon defeated North Melbourne by 40-points in game that produced final scores like the Norman Conquest - 16.10-106 to 10.6-66.

Today Geelong repeated this distinctive score again in their easy 40-point win over North Melbourne, the Cats beating the Kangaroos 16.10-106 to 10.6-66 in Hobart.
 
emuboy said:
In Round 10, Essendon defeated North Melbourne by 40-points in game that produced final scores like the Norman Conquest - 16.10-106 to 10.6-66.

Today Geelong repeated this distinctive score again in their easy 40-point win over North Melbourne, the Cats beating the Kangaroos 16.10-106 to 10.6-66 in Hobart.
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Not only that, those numbers rang a bell in cricket, by Arthur Mailey in a county game many years ago.

In first-class cricket at Cheltenham during the 1921 tour, he took all ten Gloucestershire wickets for 66 runs in the second innings. His 1958 autobiography was accordingly titled 10 for 66 and All That (an allusion to the humorous book of English history, 1066 and All That).
 
emuboy said:
In Round 10, Essendon defeated North Melbourne by 40-points in game that produced final scores like the Norman Conquest - 16.10-106 to 10.6-66.

Today Geelong repeated this distinctive score again in their easy 40-point win over North Melbourne, the Cats beating the Kangaroos 16.10-106 to 10.6-66 in Hobart.
Click to expand...

Sir Swamp Thing also added the coincidence that this duplicate scoreline occurred in games North Melbourne played against teams coached by the Scott twins - Brad for Essendon and Chris for Geelong.
 

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Catsace said:
Was 1969 the first season of 'Out of bounds on the full' as a free kick to the opposition? 60 scoring shots seems a staggering amount to have particularly when the 50's and 60's had generally low scoring. Then again 1969 began to herald the arrival of many great full forwards, in Wade (127 in '69) and them Mckenna, Hudson, Jesaulenko and even Geoff Blethyn who all kicked tons in the early 70's.
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It was the first out of bounds on the full season, but the record high scoring with 97 points per team per game and no goal tally less than six was mostly due to a very dry and warm winter — the driest in Melbourne since 1950 when Essendon scored 1,942 points. In the more normal (before runaway climate change due to Australian and petrostate greenhouse gas emissions) 1970 season, he average score was ten points fewer than 1969, although five points higher than 1968 and eleven higher than 1966.
 
In the SANFL this weekend one of the longest droughts in football might be about to break, the Port Adelaide Magpies' wooden spoon drought that dates all the way back to 1900. So will Port Adelaide win the wooden spoon for the first time in 124-years? The Magpies are currently last at 4-13, but only 1.5% behind 9th placed South Adelaide Panthers whose trophy cabinets at Noarlunga are overflowing with wooden spoons. Port Adelade are playing Central Districts Bulldogs at Elizabeth; South Adelaide Glenelg at Glenelg. If Port win and South lose they will switch positions; if South win and Port lose the Magpies stay last, but with the same win loss record and such a narrow percentage gap, there could still be a ladder change depending on the scores even if both the Magpies and Panthers win or they both lose.

It looked like another long wooden spoon drought would break in the WAFL, with West Perth seemingly set to finish last for the first time in 32-years. However the Falcons upset Subiaco last weekend and it looks like the Falcons are safe from their first wooden spoon since 1992, and that the West Coast Eagles WAFL team will finish on the bottom of the ladder for the fourth year in a row. Peel Thunder is on top of the ladder which means the chance of a 'new' grand final this year, but with Perth and West Perth out of finals contention we won't be seeing one of the three 'missing' grand finals among the 8 long-standing WAFL teams; Swan Districts vs. West Perth, Perth vs Swan Districts and Claremont vs. Perth.

In the AFL the Top 8 has not been decided yet, but there looks to be the chance of some new finals match-ups or those that haven't come up for a while. Hawthorn has never played Brisbane in a final as either the Lions or the Bears (although they had a number of meetings with Fitzroy during the Lions' resurgence of the late 70s to mid 80s), Carlton and the Bulldogs have never met in a final in 100 years since 1925, if by some miracle Collingwood makes it Magpie finals against the Hawks are very rare and there hasn't been a Carlton vs. Hawthorn final since the 1988 Second Semi Final.
 
Heading into the final round no team had kicked 10 goals in a quarter this year.
Now we've had two 10-goal quarters in this round alone (Geelong vs West Coast Q2 and Hawthorn vs North Q4)
 
The Port Adelaide Magpies won their first SANFL wooden spoon in 123-years yesterday, losing to the Central District Bulldogs by 68-points at Elizabeth to finish last for the first time since 1900. Second bottom South Adelaide did everything they could to take the 2024 wooden spoon to Noarlunga with an inglorious 118-point thrashing from the Glenelg Tigers, but while the Panthers certainly deserved to finish last after such a terrible showing the bottom place ultimately goes to the Magpies by just 0.7 percent.
 
Once again there seems to have been divine intervention from higher up to stop the first ever Carlton vs. Western Bulldogs final, because although both teams qualified for the 2024 finals, the Bulldogs will play against Hawthorn in the sixth vs. seventh elimination final, while the eighth placed Blues will play the fifth placed Brisbane Lions in the other Elimination final.

Of course, a Blues vs. Bulldogs final is still possible this year; if they both win their way through the finals series and play off in a 6th vs. 8th Grand Final. But while 2024 has been a very strange season, and the pre-finals bye has produced some downright peculiar results since its introduction in 2016, this scenario does seem too far-fetched to be plausible.
 
Richmond has now collected this year's wooden spoon, just 4 years after their 2020 premiership triumph.

The 4 year fall from premiers to wooden spooners is not the fastest fall in history, but is the fastest in the 18-team era.

The fastest fall is 3 years. After winning the 1948 premiership, Melbourne fell to 12th and last in 1951 (before rebounding to win the 1955 premiership).

Technically, Fitzroy went from premiers in 1913 to wooden spooners in 1916. However, 1916 was the strange and unique year where only 4 teams competed. This allowed Fitzroy to play finals, where it struck form and went on to win the 1916 premiership (as well as collect the wooden spoon).

Richmond's 4 year fall from premiers to the wooden spoon puts it into equal second place, alongside South Melbourne (1918-1922), Hawthorn (1961-1965) and West Coast (2006-2010).

In the 18-team era, only one team has previously won both the premiership and wooden spoon. It took West Coast 5 years to go from 2018 premiers to 2023 wooden spooners. Richmond has now done it 1 year faster.
 
Twenty years have now gone by since Essendon's last finals win, and it is also 20 years since we had teams from all participating states in the Top 8 in the same season.

In 2004 we saw teams from Victoria (Geelong, St Kilda, Essendon, Melbourne), South Australia (Port Adelaide), Western Australia (West Coast Eagles), New South Wales (Sydney Swans) and Queensland (Brisbane Lions) participating in the finals, but never once in all the years since, despite new teams from Queensland and NSW entering the AFL in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Since then, the Brisbane Lions were absent from the finals from 2005-2008, the Sydney Swans missed the finals in 2009, as did the West Coast Eagles from 2008-2010 while Fremantle only once made the finals (2006) in 2005-2009. Both South Australian teams were regular finalists in the 2000s, but Port Adelaide had a five year finals absence from 2008-2012, and Adelaide were only in the finals once (2012) from 2010-2014 inclusive.

The Gold Coast Suns are still to make their finals debut 14 years after their first game, and the Brisbane Lions had a finals absence of 9 years from 2010-2018 so obviously no Queensland finals in this time, although the Lions have made the finals every year since then. The Sydney Swans have been regular finalists since 2010 as have GWS after their formative years, but there was one year - 2020 - with no NSW teams in the finals.


Lately it has been the WA and SA teams preventing an all states finals series. Fremantle had a run of finals from 2012-2015, but since then have only made the finals once, this in 2022. The West Coast Eagles, finalists every year 2015-2020, fell off a cliff from 2021 and the only finals appearance from a WA team since then was the Dockers in 2022.

The Adelaide Crows were strong in the mid 2010s, but now have not made the finals since their GF disaster in 2017. Port Adelaide have made the finals more often than their cross-town rivals in these last 7 years, but were missing from September in 2018, 2019 and 2022, their absence in 2019 and 2022 preventing South Australian representation these seasons when all other states had at least one team in the finals.
 
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North park said:
Richmond has now collected this year's wooden spoon, just 4 years after their 2020 premiership triumph.

The 4 year fall from premiers to wooden spooners is not the fastest fall in history, but is the fastest in the 18-team era.

The fastest fall is 3 years. After winning the 1948 premiership, Melbourne fell to 12th and last in 1951 (before rebounding to win the 1955 premiership).

Technically, Fitzroy went from premiers in 1913 to wooden spooners in 1916. However, 1916 was the strange and unique year where only 4 teams competed. This allowed Fitzroy to play finals, where it struck form and went on to win the 1916 premiership (as well as collect the wooden spoon).

Richmond's 4 year fall from premiers to the wooden spoon puts it into equal second place, alongside South Melbourne (1918-1922), Hawthorn (1961-1965) and West Coast (2006-2010).

In the 18-team era, only one team has previously won both the premiership and wooden spoon. It took West Coast 5 years to go from 2018 premiers to 2023 wooden spooners. Richmond has now done it 1 year faster.
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Also, this season was Richmond's lowest average points scored per match since 1964.
 
The Adelaide Crows have just completed their 34th season in the AFL but have only made the finals 50% of the time during their tenure. Much of this is due to an astonishing and unexpected 7 years finals absence since losing the 2017 Grand Final, but there was a period of underachievement in the mid 1990s and only making the finals once (2012) in the years 2010-2014 inclusive.

However in this time Adelaide have managed to meet every other team in at least one final, except those that were impossible for it to meet. These teams of course are the Gold Coast Suns which are yet to play finals after their 2011 admission, and Fitzroy and the Brisbane Bears in the Crows' earlier years. Fitzroy didn't make the finals in any of 1991-1996, while Adelaide and the Bears were never in the same finals series during these years. I wonder if when the Gold Coast Suns finally break into the Top 8 their first finals match will be against Adelaide?

This is quite remarkable given a number of the Crows finals campaigns saw a first week exit in an Elimination Final and they have met a number of opponents multiple times in finals. Most other clubs have at least some gaps in their finals opponents list. For example the West Coast Eagles, which were admitted four years prior to the Crows in 1987, have not to date played a final against the Brisbane Lions, Fremantle Dockers, Richmond or St Kilda, with the Gold Coast, the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy also absent from the list as with Adelaide.
 
North park said:
Richmond has now collected this year's wooden spoon, just 4 years after their 2020 premiership triumph.

The 4 year fall from premiers to wooden spooners is not the fastest fall in history, but is the fastest in the 18-team era.

The fastest fall is 3 years. After winning the 1948 premiership, Melbourne fell to 12th and last in 1951 (before rebounding to win the 1955 premiership).

Technically, Fitzroy went from premiers in 1913 to wooden spooners in 1916. However, 1916 was the strange and unique year where only 4 teams competed. This allowed Fitzroy to play finals, where it struck form and went on to win the 1916 premiership (as well as collect the wooden spoon).

Richmond's 4 year fall from premiers to the wooden spoon puts it into equal second place, alongside South Melbourne (1918-1922), Hawthorn (1961-1965) and West Coast (2006-2010).

In the 18-team era, only one team has previously won both the premiership and wooden spoon. It took West Coast 5 years to go from 2018 premiers to 2023 wooden spooners. Richmond has now done it 1 year faster.
Click to expand...

One of the most astonishing fast declines of a powerful team was that of Geelong in the 1950s. The early-mid 1950s was Geelong's golden era. In 1950 the Cats were fourth on the ladder and lost the preliminary final, and this was followed by four successive minor premierships from 1951-1954, the Cats winning the 1951 and 1952 grand finals and runner-up to Collingwood in 1953. The Cats went out of the finals in straight sets in 1954 but in competitive finals, and they continued to be premiership contenders in 1955 and 1956, the Cats making the preliminary final in 1955 and losing a thrilling 2-point first semi final to the Bulldogs in wet weather in 1956.

But when Geelong's decline as a powerhouse came the next year, it came hard and fast for the Cats. After seven straight seasons as a premiership contender, Geelong's 1957 season wasn't one that saw the team unconvincingly scrape into the finals and be humiliated in the first semi final, or an inconsistent season that saw them in fifth or sixth with an even win-loss record. Instead it fell all the way to last with a 5-12-1 record.

Granted, 1957 was a very even season - minor premier Melbourne was 12-5-1 and the Cats didn't hit the bottom of the ladder until defeat by Fitzroy at the Lions' Brunswick Street Oval in Round 18 - but if the Cats thought this was an aberration for one year they were wrong. Geelong finished last again - this time comprehensively - in 1958 and were well down the ladder again in both 1959 and 1960. It wasn't until 1961 when Geelong finished sixth with ten wins that the Cats began to challenge for a finals spot again, and they returned to the finals in 1962, six years after their last appearance.
 
emuboy said:
One of the most astonishing fast declines of a powerful team was that of Geelong in the 1950s. The early-mid 1950s was Geelong's golden era. In 1950 the Cats were fourth on the ladder and lost the preliminary final, and this was followed by four successive minor premierships from 1951-1954, the Cats winning the 1951 and 1952 grand finals and runner-up to Collingwood in 1953. The Cats went out of the finals in straight sets in 1954 but in competitive finals, and they continued to be premiership contenders in 1955 and 1956, the Cats making the preliminary final in 1955 and losing a thrilling 2-point first semi final to the Bulldogs in wet weather in 1956.

But when Geelong's decline as a powerhouse came the next year, it came hard and fast for the Cats. After seven straight seasons as a premiership contender, Geelong's 1957 season wasn't one that saw the team unconvincingly scrape into the finals and be humiliated in the first semi final, or an inconsistent season that saw them in fifth or sixth with an even win-loss record. Instead it fell all the way to last with a 5-12-1 record.

Granted, 1957 was a very even season - minor premier Melbourne was 12-5-1 and the Cats didn't hit the bottom of the ladder until defeat by Fitzroy at the Lions' Brunswick Street Oval in Round 18 - but if the Cats thought this was an aberration for one year they were wrong. Geelong finished last again - this time comprehensively - in 1958 and were well down the ladder again in both 1959 and 1960. It wasn't until 1961 when Geelong finished sixth with ten wins that the Cats began to challenge for a finals spot again, and they returned to the finals in 1962, six years after their last appearance.
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I wasn't aware of how fast Geelong's decline was during the 1950s.

The closest comparison is South Melbourne in the 1930s during their 'Foreign Legion' period. The Swans were finalists for 5 straight years (1932-1936) and made the Grand Final in 4 straight years (1933-1936), winning the first and then losing the next three.

They finished as minor premiers in 1935 and 1936 before losing both Grand Finals to Collingwood. South dropped to 9th place in 1937 and then to wooden spooners in both 1938 and 1939.

The fall from minor premiers to wooden spooners in 2 years is the fastest fall recorded. It was equaled by Hawthorn in 1963-1965 but has not been beaten.

Geelong's 3 year fall from minor premiers in 1954 to wooden spooners in 1957 places it equal 2nd fastest, alongside Fitzroy (1913-1916), Collingwood (1973-1976), St. Kilda (1997-2000) and Adelaide (2017-2020).
 
North park said:
I wasn't aware of how fast Geelong's decline was during the 1950s.

The closest comparison is South Melbourne in the 1930s during their 'Foreign Legion' period. The Swans were finalists for 5 straight years (1932-1936) and made the Grand Final in 4 straight years (1933-1936), winning the first and then losing the next three.

They finished as minor premiers in 1935 and 1936 before losing both Grand Finals to Collingwood. South dropped to 9th place in 1937 and then to wooden spooners in both 1938 and 1939.

The fall from minor premiers to wooden spooners in 2 years is the fastest fall recorded. It was equaled by Hawthorn in 1963-1965 but has not been beaten.

Geelong's 3 year fall from minor premiers in 1954 to wooden spooners in 1957 places it equal 2nd fastest, alongside Fitzroy (1913-1916), Collingwood (1973-1976), St. Kilda (1997-2000) and Adelaide (2017-2020).
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The way South Melbourne fell away so fast in the late 1930s was quite strange, I've never been able to explain it although the Swans did rebound in the early-mid 1940s and were back in the finals in the later years of WW2.

Melbourne in the late 40s/early 50s were quite an odd case. Premiers in 1948, 5th in 1949 and back in the finals in 1950, the Demons slipped to last with 1 win in 1951 and were second last in 1953, before rising to runner-up in 1954 and premiers in 1955, this setting off a golden era for the Demons with more premierships in 1956, 1957, 1959, 1960 and 1964, and runner up in 1958.

Oddly enough, I can't find an AFL inverse of the Dees of this era - a bottom team that soared up the ladder to claim a premiership within a few years, but just as quickly fell back to the bottom of the ladder. There are some examples in the state leagues, like in the WAFL South Fremantle were last in 1969, rose to first in 1970 and crushed Perth in the Grand Final, but were last again by 1972 after finishing 6th (of 8 WAFL teams at the time) in 1971. Can you say, 'whiplash?'

More recently there's enigmatic SANFL team West Adelaide which finished 9th (second last) in 2014, raced up the ladder to win the 2015 SANFL premiership (their first since 2015) but were last with just two wins a year later in 2016, and since then the Bloods have been 9th in 2017, 8th in 2018, five consecutive wooden spoons 2019-2023 and 8th with 5 wins and an abysmal percentage after many terrible thrashings yet again in 2024.

Oakleigh were a powerhouse of the VFA in the early 1970s, winning the 1972 Division 1 flag in one of the most dominant seasons seen in this league, and runners up to the powerful Prahran and Port Melbourne teams in 1973 and 1974 respectively. But after a mediocre mid-ladder season in 1975 thought to be an aberration, Oakleigh finished last in 1976 and were relegated to Division 2. One of the strongest teams in the VFA's lower division, Oakleigh should have gotten back to Division 1, but unfortunately the Devils developed a hoodoo for Grand and Preliminary finals, and missed numerous chances to get back to the top league. When Oakleigh finally snapped their GF hoodoo in 1988, crushing Sunshine in that year's Division 2 GF, it was an anticlimax, as Division 2 would be scrapped and all teams back in Division 1 from 1989.
 

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