Weird football scores

Remove this Banner Ad

Catsace said:
For some reason i was looking at AFL tables and thought to check out the Pies/Dogs EF in 1974, and i did know the Pies won big that day and the Dogs scored a horribly inaccurate 6.19.55.

What i didn't realise is that in the 1st and 3rd quarters, the Dogs scored 5.1.31, and at the other end, 1.18.24!!

Anyone know if some flukey gale was blowing around at that end? And actually the Pies scored 19.10.124, but in the 2nd and 4th quarters, scored 11.1.67, so that end produced 16.2.98 for the game. The other end..well it was 9.27.81!!

That is rather amazing that one end of VFL park furnishes 2 behinds in a half, the other 27!
Click to expand...

That game really is one of the all-time strange ones. Waverley Park was always a very strange venue weather-wise, often wet, windy and cold, and it fully earned its nickname 'Arctic Park' but it's odd that both teams scored freely at both ends, but so accurately at one end, so inaccurately at the other. Windy conditions usually favor one end over another or produce general inaccuracy for both teams all day regardless of which way they are kicking. This clearly didn't happen here with Collingwood and the Dogs.
 
Catsace said:
For some reason i was looking at AFL tables and thought to check out the Pies/Dogs EF in 1974, and i did know the Pies won big that day and the Dogs scored a horribly inaccurate 6.19.55.

What i didn't realise is that in the 1st and 3rd quarters, the Dogs scored 5.1.31, and at the other end, 1.18.24!!

Anyone know if some flukey gale was blowing around at that end? And actually the Pies scored 19.10.124, but in the 2nd and 4th quarters, scored 11.1.67, so that end produced 16.2.98 for the game. The other end..well it was 9.27.81!!

That is rather amazing that one end of VFL park furnishes 2 behinds in a half, the other 27!
Click to expand...
Here's the scores from all three games played at the ground that day:
1662256800001.png
There's no mention at all of the conditions in The Age, Canberra Times or Football Record; they just talk about Footscray's inaccuracy/poor kicking for goal:
1662256956781.png
From the Football Record:
1662257789124.png
 
Thanks for those articles 35Daicos, and it shows in the 'Ressies' that the Blues kick 9.2 at one end, the Tigers 9.3 at the same end when it was their turn. Obviously it doesn't show what end it was, but that contrasts a bit with the 14.16.100 kicked by the combined teams at the opposite end. Under 19's doesn't really have any pattern.

There was that kooky game in Rd 21, 1976 where the Dogs kicked 4.11.35 to 3.16.34, a real outlier in an era of quite high scoring also played at Waverley. Maybe just the mysteries of that venue, funny how after it's decommissioning after 1999 the climate seems to have gotten drier and Melbourne started having water restrictions into the 2000's!
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Catsace said:
Thanks for those articles 35Daicos, and it shows in the 'Ressies' that the Blues kick 9.2 at one end, the Tigers 9.3 at the same end when it was their turn. Obviously it doesn't show what end it was, but that contrasts a bit with the 14.16.100 kicked by the combined teams at the opposite end. Under 19's doesn't really have any pattern.

There was that kooky game in Rd 21, 1976 where the Dogs kicked 4.11.35 to 3.16.34, a real outlier in an era of quite high scoring also played at Waverley. Maybe just the mysteries of that venue, funny how after it's decommissioning after 1999 the climate seems to have gotten drier and Melbourne started having water restrictions into the 2000's!
Click to expand...
Under 19's were played mid morning, so the weather could change before lunchtime. How many times have you woken to blue skies and then see it cloud over?
 
In the AFLW vs St Kilda earlier today, the Dees were sitting on 6.0 (36) late in the first quarter. Their final score? 6.10 (46)
6 straight goals to start the match, then 10 straight points from then on (and didn't kick a goal in the last three quarters).
Plus the fact that despite all of this, they still won the match comfortably by 26 points.
 
The 1989 season was a bit of a strange one. There were a lot of high-scoring matches with aggregates approaching or over 300 points, but a very wet winter across Australia meant that a lot of other matches were played in inclement weather on waterlogged, muddy grounds producing scores that looked like pre-World War I games.

One of the strangest games that year was a match between the Bulldogs and Collingwood at the Western Oval in Round 14, where the Magpies blitzed the home side with a 6.3 to 0.2 opening quarter, setting up what looked to be an unbeatable 37-point lead at quarter time. Yet for the rest of the day Collingwood scored a dismal 1.12 to Footscray's 15.13, allowing the Bulldogs to not only catch but overtake and eventually thrash the Magpies by 48-points, 15.15-105 to 7.15-57.

Games affected by strong winds and rain are nothing unusual at the Western Oval, but the scoring patterns in this match suggest that it wasn't the main factor at play that day, especially after half time:

Footscray 0.2 4.6 10.9 15.15-105 d. Collingwood 6.3 6.3 7.8 7.15-57
 
emuboy said:
The 1989 season was a bit of a strange one. There were a lot of high-scoring matches with aggregates approaching or over 300 points, but a very wet winter across Australia meant that a lot of other matches were played in inclement weather on waterlogged, muddy grounds producing scores that looked like pre-World War I games.

One of the strangest games that year was a match between the Bulldogs and Collingwood at the Western Oval in Round 14, where the Magpies blitzed the home side with a 6.3 to 0.2 opening quarter, setting up what looked to be an unbeatable 37-point lead at quarter time. Yet for the rest of the day Collingwood scored a dismal 1.12 to Footscray's 15.13, allowing the Bulldogs to not only catch but overtake and eventually thrash the Magpies by 48-points, 15.15-105 to 7.15-57.

Games affected by strong winds and rain are nothing unusual at the Western Oval, but the scoring patterns in this match suggest that it wasn't the main factor at play that day, especially after half time:

Footscray 0.2 4.6 10.9 15.15-105 d. Collingwood 6.3 6.3 7.8 7.15-57
Click to expand...
The Age had this to say about the game, suggesting there was a decent wind advantage to one end, but Collingwood only really capitalised on it once:
1666411869414.png

1666411902134.png

1666412734303.png
 
Last edited:
Anyone ever noticed the 2007 Grand final score?
Geelong last won in 1963 at that time...
There score that day? 163...
It had been 44 years...
The Power score that day? 44

Things normally come in 3s and I feel like there's something else in the score line
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

emuboy said:
The 1989 season was a bit of a strange one. There were a lot of high-scoring matches with aggregates approaching or over 300 points, but a very wet winter across Australia meant that a lot of other matches were played in inclement weather on waterlogged, muddy grounds producing scores that looked like pre-World War I games.

One of the strangest games that year was a match between the Bulldogs and Collingwood at the Western Oval in Round 14, where the Magpies blitzed the home side with a 6.3 to 0.2 opening quarter, setting up what looked to be an unbeatable 37-point lead at quarter time. Yet for the rest of the day Collingwood scored a dismal 1.12 to Footscray's 15.13, allowing the Bulldogs to not only catch but overtake and eventually thrash the Magpies by 48-points, 15.15-105 to 7.15-57.

Games affected by strong winds and rain are nothing unusual at the Western Oval, but the scoring patterns in this match suggest that it wasn't the main factor at play that day, especially after half time:

Footscray 0.2 4.6 10.9 15.15-105 d. Collingwood 6.3 6.3 7.8 7.15-57
Click to expand...
The variation in scores, to my mind, is what makes the 1989 season so interesting and so unique. Traces of this can be found in 1987, 1988, 1991 and 1992 but not nearly to the same degree.

Both the highest losing score and the lowest winning score since 1928 (in Footscray’s previous game!) were from 1989, and even at the time it attracted my attention to a very high degree. 1989 is the only season since 1911 with more than one score of 0 or 1 goal (Fitzroy in Round 11 and West Coast in Round 15) yet there were four quarters with over 100 points and four matches where both teams scored twenty goals, both of which are the equal most for any season. Hawthorn and Geelong, who played in the Grand Final, dominated the competition because of their scoring ability in all conditions, which was so pronounced they each scored over 400 points more than any other team in the home-and-away season.

The standardisation of ground conditions — which as a watcher of football has undoubtedly made the game much less aesthetically pleasing — and a hotter, generally drier climate has made the variation in scores seen in 1989 quite impossible these days.
 
mianfei said:
The variation in scores, to my mind, is what makes the 1989 season so interesting and so unique. Traces of this can be found in 1987, 1988, 1991 and 1992 but not nearly to the same degree.

Both the highest losing score and the lowest winning score since 1928 (in Footscray’s previous game!) were from 1989, and even at the time it attracted my attention to a very high degree. 1989 is the only season since 1911 with more than one score of 0 or 1 goal (Fitzroy in Round 11 and West Coast in Round 15) yet there were four quarters with over 100 points and four matches where both teams scored twenty goals, both of which are the equal most for any season. Hawthorn and Geelong, who played in the Grand Final, dominated the competition because of their scoring ability in all conditions, which was so pronounced they each scored over 400 points more than any other team in the home-and-away season.

The standardisation of ground conditions — which as a watcher of football has undoubtedly made the game much less aesthetically pleasing — and a hotter, generally drier climate has made the variation in scores seen in 1989 quite impossible these days.
Click to expand...

Another strange case was that of South Melbourne in 1962. The Swans, which finished last that year with a 3-15 record kicked the season's lowest score of 1.11-17 against Melbourne (8.15-63) at the MCG, and the highest score of the season of 22.11-143 against Fitzroy (17.16-118) at the Lions' Brunswick Street Oval.

South Melbourne's 1962 team is the only wooden spoon team to date to kick the season's highest score, and in the game in Melbourne where they kicked the lowest score they kicked the first goal of the game (leading 1.2 to 0.4 at quarter time) before Melbourne kicked 8 goals to none in the next three terms. This game was unusually low scoring, the other scores that round were pretty normal and didn't suggest wet weather. And the win over the also battling Fitzroy in an unusually high scoring match for the era late in the season was the Swans' only win in the last 16 rounds of the season, South starting 1962 2-0 before finishing 3-15.
 
emuboy said:
And the win over the also battling Fitzroy in an unusually high scoring match for the era late in the season was the Swans' only win in the last 16 rounds of the season, South starting 1962 2-0 before finishing 3-15.
Click to expand...
It was actually at the time the highest scoring game since the 1948 Preliminary Final. The aggregate score of 261 points is actually more than double the second-highest score of 1962 (129 points by Geelong in Round 6 and again by the Cats in Round 11), while Fitzroy’s losing score was the equal eighth-highest score of the year. The Lions would not kick a higher score until Round 13, 1967, by which time they had moved to Princes Park, although it must be noted that in between Fitzroy won just seven out of eighty-six matches (one of which was the following week against Hawthorn and would prove their last win over the Hawks until Round 4, 1972).

What’s rather strange is that between 1959 and 1963 there were only three matches where both teams scored a century, and all were played at Brunswick Street:
  1. Round 1, 1959, Fitzroy v Hawthorn
  2. Round 10, 1960, Fitzroy v North Melbourne
  3. Round 16, 1962, Fitzroy v South Melbourne
In fact, in 1961, the highest losing score — though at 95 points the lowest highest losing score of any season between 1924 and 2019 — was also at Brunswick Street, in the Round 4 game against Richmond. Again, the highest score between 1951 and 1963, and the second highest between 1951 and 1968, was kicked by the Lions in their final round game with the Swans in 1961. This is made even more strange by the fact that the Lions were never really a high-scoring side in these years.
emuboy said:
South Melbourne's 1962 team is the only wooden spoon team to date to kick the season's highest score
Click to expand...
South Melbourne in 1922 also finished with the wooden spoon and kicked the highest score, against second-last Geelong. What is amazing is that the two games between Geelong and South Melbourne in 1922 gave the home sides the two biggest winning margins of the season, although they were neighbours on the ladder! Kind of like Footscray versus Richmond in 1958, 1979 and 1989, although without the remarkable scoring patterns of those three pairs.
 
Last edited:
mianfei said:
It was actually at the time the highest scoring game since the 1948 Preliminary Final. The aggregate score of 261 points is actually more than double the second-highest score of 1962 (129 points by Geelong in Round 6 and again by the Cats in Round 11), while Fitzroy’s losing score was the equal eighth-highest score of the year. The Lions would not kick a higher score until Round 13, 1967, by which time they had moved to Princes Park, although it must be noted that in between Fitzroy won just seven out of eighty-six matches (one of which was the following week against Hawthorn and would prove their last win over the Hawks until Round 4, 1972).

What’s rather strange is that between 1959 and 1963 there were only three matches where both teams scored a century, and all were played at Brunswick Street:
  1. Round 1, 1959, Fitzroy v Hawthorn
  2. Round 10, 1960, Fitzroy v North Melbourne
  3. Round 16, 1962, Fitzroy v South Melbourne
In fact, in 1961, the highest losing score — though at 95 points the lowest highest losing score of any season between 1924 and 2019 — was also at Brunswick Street, in the Round 4 game against Richmond. Again, the highest score between 1951 and 1963, and the second highest between 1951 and 1968, was kicked by the Lions in their final round game with the Swans in 1961. This is made even more strange by the fact that the Lions were never really a high-scoring side in these years.

South Melbourne in 1922 also finished with the wooden spoon and kicked the highest score, against second-last Geelong. What is amazing is that the two games between Geelong and South Melbourne in 1922 gave the home sides the two biggest winning margins of the season, although they were neighbours on the ladder! Kind of like Footscray versus Richmond in 1958, 1979 and 1989, although without the remarkable scoring patterns of those three pairs.
Click to expand...

With Geelong second last and the Swans second last in 1922, the teams played off in the Grand Final exactly 100 years later, continuing a bizarre run of coincidental season results between 1910-1922 and 2010-2022.
 
Just finished researching the Huon Association of 1936. With two rounds to go, 4 team league with the top 3 playing finals, the president of the league, who had strong links to Cygnet, decided that Cygnet should be put in 3rd place, putting Franklin on the bottom, based upon percentage head to head between those two teams, removing all other matches from consideration. Both equal on points, Franklin with a better percentage overall, but Cygnet had the wood on them that year. Huge controversy that lasted a couple of weeks right up until finals were due to start, and the TFL, their parent body, then reviewed the matter, had a chuckle at the blatant cronyism, and then reinstated Franklin into the finals due to overall percentage, stating that every league in Australia places teams this way and always will! Cygnet spat the dummy, complaining "you can't change your mind when you make a decision"...! Cygnet got the spoon, Franklin then drew its semi against Huonville and won the replay, and then beat the minor premiers Kermandie twice (challenge system) to take the flag...!

Was a very even league...the two top teams were 10-8, and the two form teams at the end were actually 8-10 Cygnet and Franklin. Huonville and Kermandie had to replay a match from June at the end of the season because neither of the goal umpires could agree on a match winning goal (literally a conversation going "I saw the goal and saw you raise the flags"..."no, you didn't, you didn't see anything"...!), and the prize for big starting but late spluttering Huonville was second spot and not the spoon (if you're wondering how that adds up, after R12 you got 6 points for a win instead of 4, and most of Huonville's wins happened early while Cygnet and Franklin won games with bigger points later).
 
For some reason i was perusing the scores for the seasons 1925-27 for Geelong, given that they had a very high win percentage in those seasons, but tended to lose their first final and drop out..in 1925 though as finishing top they challenged successfully and won the Flag that year.

But among the games i noticed a late season loss to St.Kilda at the Junction Oval in Rd 17 1927, and whether Geelong had the wind in the 1st quarter, they sprayed 1.12.18 to a single behind.

2nd quarter the Saints riposted with 5.7 37 to Geelong singular goal.
Maybe with the wind again in the 3rd, Geelong managed 5.9.39 while the Saints added a mere behind to their tally.

But in the last St.Kilda came home with 4.9 33 to Geelong's 1.1.7, for St.Kilda to win 9.18.72 to 8.22.70

Upshot being in quarters 1 and 3 for Geelong, 2 and 4 for St.Kilda, the combined scores were 15.37.127.....and the other end, just 2.3 15.

Pretty amazing stuff there. 52 scoring shots at one end, just five at the other.
 
Catsace said:
For some reason i was perusing the scores for the seasons 1925-27 for Geelong, given that they had a very high win percentage in those seasons, but tended to lose their first final and drop out..in 1925 though as finishing top they challenged successfully and won the Flag that year.

But among the games i noticed a late season loss to St.Kilda at the Junction Oval in Rd 17 1927, and whether Geelong had the wind in the 1st quarter, they sprayed 1.12.18 to a single behind.

2nd quarter the Saints riposted with 5.7 37 to Geelong singular goal.
Maybe with the wind again in the 3rd, Geelong managed 5.9.39 while the Saints added a mere behind to their tally.

But in the last St.Kilda came home with 4.9 33 to Geelong's 1.1.7, for St.Kilda to win 9.18.72 to 8.22.70

Upshot being in quarters 1 and 3 for Geelong, 2 and 4 for St.Kilda, the combined scores were 15.37.127.....and the other end, just 2.3 15.

Pretty amazing stuff there. 52 scoring shots at one end, just five at the other.
Click to expand...
Sounds like it was very windy, and goals were hard to kick even with the wind!
1673941846999.png
It seems the wind affected the Footscray vs. Fitzroy game played that day as well!:
1673942349759.png
1673942192662.png
 
Last edited:
That's magnificent work there 35Daicos, and actually in checking these score in AFL tables, i noticed the crowds were often around the 20,000 mark...pretty big crowds for the population at the time and especially at the other grounds not being the MCG. It's kind of exciting just sometimes looking through those old seasons and seeing some really astounding scorelines. I'd hazard a guess that in these older grounds at the time there may have been gaps between stands, leading to some wild windy outcomes.
 
35Daicos said:
Sounds like it was very windy, and goals were hard to kick even with the wind!
View attachment 1588204
It seems the wind affected the Footscray vs. Fitzroy game played that day as well!:
View attachment 1588214
View attachment 1588211
Click to expand...

Great work, 35Daicos.
My apologies if you mentioned it and for some obscure reason it was hidden from my (cyber) view, but that Round 17, 1927, Footscray-Fitzroy game at the Western Oval was similarly amazing to the St Kilda-Geelong match at the Junction Oval in terms of the lopsidedness of the scoring at the one end.
The Dogs were comfortable winners, 15.11 (101) to 9.18 (72), but all bar a solitary goal (kicked by the Scrays in the second quarter) came at one end of the ground, i.e., the ends' score was 23.29 (167) to 1.0 (6).
And at Arden Street, with South Melbourne beating North Melbourne, 11.12 (78) to 8.12 (60), the ends' score was 17.17 (119) to 2.7 (19).
It would be interesting to know whether there has ever been a VFL round in which three of the six games had 100-plus-point differentials between the two ends.
 
FitzroyPete said:
Great work, 35Daicos.
My apologies if you mentioned it and for some obscure reason it was hidden from my (cyber) view, but that Round 17, 1927, Footscray-Fitzroy game at the Western Oval was similarly amazing to the St Kilda-Geelong match at the Junction Oval in terms of the lopsidedness of the scoring at the one end.
The Dogs were comfortable winners, 15.11 (101) to 9.18 (72), but all bar a solitary goal (kicked by the Scrays in the second quarter) came at one end of the ground, i.e., the ends' score was 23.29 (167) to 1.0 (6).
And at Arden Street, with South Melbourne beating North Melbourne, 11.12 (78) to 8.12 (60), the ends' score was 17.17 (119) to 2.7 (19).
It would be interesting to know whether there has ever been a VFL round in which three of the six games had 100-plus-point differentials between the two ends.
Click to expand...
Good to see you around, mate. I hope you're going well.
 
Pretty well thanks, 35Daicos, as I also hope you are.
Work has kept me busier than I'd like, but I hope to get more involved with BigFooty in 2023.
 
St Kilda inexplicably beat Brisbane 186-47 in 2005
West Coast scored 5 goals against Hawthorn in 2012 (0 in the first half) and won the match. 5.21 to 5.16.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Weird football scores

Similar threads

SUNS
Women’s football highest score and margin
Replies
2
Views
774
SUNS
SUNS

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top