Weird football scores

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35Daicos said:
It doesn't look like they contributed much between them that year in terms of draftees!: Wikiwand - 1993 AFL draft || 1993 AFL Draft and Trade Period - Draftguru
They won a combined total of 3 games out of 36 played in 1993, so it seems they didn't just have a one-off bad day to finish the season!:
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I never knew about that massive 45.30-300 score by Western Jets in a 278-point win over Ballarat Rebels in 1993, I never thought scoring got that high in this league. It looks more like one of the thrashings handed out to struggling VFA second division teams like Sunshine, Yarraville, Kilsyth, Berwick or Mordialloc in the 1980s.

As for the Western Jets they kicked an impressive 18.11-119 in the 1993 Grand Final but were still beaten by 83-points in an extraordinary match. It was their second of the first two Grand Finals that the Jets competed in but lost (the first defeat was in 1992 to Geelong Falcons). But if the Jets thought third time lucky in 1994 they were to be disappointed and are still disappointed 30 years later with the Jets having never contested another Grand Final to date. The Jets teenagers who competed in these Grand Finals all those years ago are now middle aged.

The Western Jets failure to make (much less win) another Grand Final in three decades is one of a number of strange mysteries about this competition such as:

  • The Northern Knights won four successive premierships 1993-1996 inclusive, but no Grand Finals since then and four wooden spoons.
  • The Western Jets struggled in the late 1990s to early 2000s, but since then have been more mid-ladder with an occasional finals spot, never really challenging for an elusive premiership since losing the 1992 and 1993 Grand Finals.
  • It could be argued that the introduction of the Calder Cannons in NW Melbourne from 1995 adversely affected the Knights and Jets, but the Knights weren't immediately affected by the arrival of the Cannons and the introduction of the other new 1995 team the Oakleigh Chargers from SE Melbourne didn't have any adverse effects on the neighboring Eastern Ranges, Dandenong Southern Stingrays or Prahran Dragons.
  • The Calder Cannons themselves were the dominant team from 2000-2010, winning six flags from eight grand finals, but since then have contested only one Grand Final back in 2014, in which they were thrashed. If there was a change of demographics in Melbourne's Northern Suburbs resulting in Calder's decline then in theory the Jets or Knights should have become stronger, but neither has.
  • Despite having Ballarat and Horsham in their zone for the GWV (Ballarat/North Ballarat) Rebels, and Bendigo Pioneers both Bendigo and Mildura as well as other country competitions in Northern and Central Victoria, these teams have performed much worse overall than the other country teams the Geelong Falcons, Gippsland Power and Murray Bushrangers.
  • The Rebels have been more mediocre than bad, contesting just one GF which they won in a huge upset over the Stingrays in 1997, but have only finished last once in 2013.
  • The Pioneers have been the easy-beats for many years, despite their huge recruiting area and producing some pretty handy players over the years. While finishing last in their first two seasons in 1993 and 1994, they were quite a strong team in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and even contested the 2001 Grand Final only to find the Cannons way too strong. But since the mid-2000s it has been all bad news for Bendigo, the team running last eight times and not far off the bottom of the ladder in other seasons, never challenging for the finals.
 
An accurate Geelong blew Footscray away with a 9.3-57 to 2.2-14 opening term at the Western Oval in Round 3 1991, but for the rest of the day the Cats sprayed the football all over the ground, kicking a very inaccurate 6.24-60 over the final three quarters. The Bulldogs themselves scored 8.6-54 for the final three terms, and Geelong won 15.27-117 to 10.8-68.
 
There was a strange run of results involving the Sydney Swans in mid-1991. On the Sunday of Round 11 there were two very different games played in Melbourne and Sydney. In very wet conditions at the Western Oval, Footscray thrashed Carlton 8.9-57 to 1.10-16, the Blues' only goal coming in the final minute of play in a match to produce an aggregate of just 73-points. Up in Sydney in much nicer conditions, the Sydney Swans lost to the Brisbane Bears at the SCG in a shoot-out, Brisbane thrashing Sydney 26.12-168 to 18.13-121, a match aggregate of 289-points.

The next week the Swans met the Bulldogs at the Western Oval on Saturday in Round 12, the match played in teeming rain like the match against Carlton the week before. This time the teams played out a draw, one of the lowest scoring of all times Footscray 4.11-35 to Sydney 5.5-35, an aggregate of 70-points. Then the next week, back at the SCG, the Swans were too good for the Blues by 14-points in a relatively high scoring game, 18.16-124 to 17.8-110. Carlton themselves had rebounded from their 1 goal disaster to beat Collingwood by 20-points in Round 12, and the week after losing to Sydney the Blues inflicted the first loss of the season on the West Coast Eagles in Round 14, the team that had beaten the Bulldogs by 118-points at the WACA in Round 13, while Collingwood thrashed Sydney by 99-points.

There was an interesting post-script the next year, when the Sydney Swans hosted the Bulldogs at the SCG in Round 4 1992. The result was far removed from the low-scoring draw in 1991, the teams playing a fairly even contest for most of the day before the Bulldogs ran away with it late in the game, and won by 45-points, 25.14-164 to 17.17-119, a match aggregate of 283-points.

In the case of the Swans, has there ever been any cases of:

1. Such a huge difference between match aggregates of two games played in the same round (289 vs. 73)
2. A massive variance of match aggregates from one round to the next (289 vs. 70)
3. Such a disparity in match aggregates in successive meetings between two clubs (70 in 1991 vs. 283 in 1992)
 
There was a really odd game in the WAFL yesterday, when East Perth kicked 5.6 to Peel Thunder's 3.2 in the opening term, suggesting that given the fine and sunny weather conditions the East Perth Royals, unbeaten to this stage of the season, would kick a large score and win comfortably. Yet for the next three quarters in perfect conditions, the Royals could manage only a dismal 1.11-17, with their only goal coming late in the final term. While all this was going on, Peel had little trouble scoring 10.6, winning comfortably in the end 13.8-86 to 6.17-53.

If this match had been played on a day where the rain held off for the first quarter before beginning to fall at quarter time with the rest of the game played in inclement weather, then this sort of scoring pattern would be understandable, but not on a perfect autumn day.
 
In one of last night's games Richmond kicked 8.3-51 in the first half and then 8.3-51 again in the second half to finish 16.6-102 and beating Geelong by 24-points. I wouldn't imagine there would be that many cases of a team kicking the exact same score in both halves. As for opponents Geelong, they kicked an abysmal 5.11-41 to half time, but found their radar after the long break with 6.1-37 to finish 11.12-78. Unfortunately for the Cats, increasing their accuracy didn't really help, as 7 scoring shots in a half of football probably don't win too many games when you trail at half time, and so it proved against the Tigers.
 
emuboy said:
In one of last night's games Richmond kicked 8.3-51 in the first half and then 8.3-51 again in the second half to finish 16.6-102 and beating Geelong by 24-points. I wouldn't imagine there would be that many cases of a team kicking the exact same score in both halves. As for opponents Geelong, they kicked an abysmal 5.11-41 to half time, but found their radar after the long break with 6.1-37 to finish 11.12-78. Unfortunately for the Cats, increasing their accuracy didn't really help, as 7 scoring shots in a half of football probably don't win too many games when you trail at half time, and so it proved against the Tigers.
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Looking at AFL Tables, some obvious scores to include would be some of the really low scores from over 100 years ago where a team kicked 1 behind in each half, or 3 or 4 behinds in each half. Looking at more substantial scores the instance where Port Adelaide kicked 5.3 in each quarter in round 7, 2014, and thus 10.6 in both halves, would be one for inclusion.
 
worbod said:
Looking at AFL Tables, some obvious scores to include would be some of the really low scores from over 100 years ago where a team kicked 1 behind in each half, or 3 or 4 behinds in each half. Looking at more substantial scores the instance where Port Adelaide kicked 5.3 in each quarter in round 7, 2014, and thus 10.6 in both halves, would be one for inclusion.
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That Port score is a special scoreline, never had any side kicked the same score in each quarter, 5.3.33 for a grand total of 20.12.132.

Not quite the same score in each half, but Geelong had two narrow wins over the Pies in 1976 and 1977...the former being 15.9.99 to 11.27.93 at Kardinia Park, and the second was an upset 16.6.102 vs 12.25.97, this time at VFL Park. So the two games, Geelong 31.15.201, Pies an amazing 23.52.190. 46 scoring shots to 75 over two games and no chocolates for the Pies.

Probably been mentioned before but again for the 70's Cats, in consecutive rounds (5 and 6 1978), Geelong actually kept sides scoreless for 60 minutes of footy, yet lost both games. Rd 5 saw St.Kilda beat the Cats 14.14.98 to 9.11.65, despite holding the Saints scoreless in the last quarter.

Perhaps miffed by that not being enough, the parsimonious Cats defence inflicted the same to North Melbourne in Rd 6 1978 (Ray Card/Keith Grieg game) by leaving them scoreless at quarter time to Geelong's 4.7.31! However, by half time Geelong were behind by a goal, and lost the match 16.14.110 to 12.16.88.

I would be shocked if any side keeping an opponent scoreless in a quarter in consecutive games had ever lost them both, particularly in the free-scoring 70's like those examples.
 

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In the West Coast Eagles' disastrous 116-point loss to Hawthorn at York Park in Launceston yesterday, the Eagles had a score of 4.0 to half time, then after the long break kicked 0.2 to finish 4.2-26. While there's been plenty of cases of teams experiencing goal-less halves or a half of football where they only scored goals with no behinds, I wonder what was the last time that a team kicked only goals in one half and only behinds in the other like West Coast?

It probably would have happened before 1920, but very rarely (if ever) after this.
 
Catsace said:
Probably been mentioned before but again for the 70's Cats, in consecutive rounds (5 and 6 1978), Geelong actually kept sides scoreless for 60 minutes of footy, yet lost both games. Rd 5 saw St.Kilda beat the Cats 14.14.98 to 9.11.65, despite holding the Saints scoreless in the last quarter.

Perhaps miffed by that not being enough, the parsimonious Cats defence inflicted the same to North Melbourne in Rd 6 1978 (Ray Card/Keith Grieg game) by leaving them scoreless at quarter time to Geelong's 4.7.31! However, by half time Geelong were behind by a goal, and lost the match 16.14.110 to 12.16.88.

I would be shocked if any side keeping an opponent scoreless in a quarter in consecutive games had ever lost them both, particularly in the free-scoring 70's like those examples.
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Along similar lines, there's the 2013 semifinal between Carlton and Sydney:

Swans: 3.3 8.6 13.8 13.8 (86)
Blues: 2.3 4.8 4.8 8.14 (62)

Sydney was held scoreless in the final term but still won comfortably - and furthermore, they had previously held Carlton scoreless in the 3rd quarter themselves. Very weird for both teams to have scoreless quarters in the same game.
 
In a VFL game last weekend, the Northern Bullants scored an abysmal 0.4-4 against Footscray, which were untroubled to kick 24.17-161 themselves and win at Preston by 157-points.

The Bullants quarter by quarter scores were 0.0, 0.1, 0.4 and 0.4-4, and while other VFL teams have been held goal-less in recent years, this was the lowest VFL/VFA score of any team since 1919. Strangely, 0.4-4 is the only score below 200 (except for no score) which has never come up in the AFL.

If this match had been played in the opening round, the Bulldogs would have had a percentage of 4025, while the Bullants percentage would have been 2.48.
 
Two draws in the SANFL on the weekend (and another margin of 2 pts).
Not sure if there has ever been multiple draws in the same round before:

South 15.7 (97)
Port 14.13 (97)

West 10.16 (76)
Norwood 11.10 (76)
 
Interceptor said:
Two draws in the SANFL on the weekend (and another margin of 2 pts).
Not sure if there has ever been multiple draws in the same round before:

South 15.7 (97)
Port 14.13 (97)

West 10.16 (76)
Norwood 11.10 (76)
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VFL, Round 2, 1911:
Carlton 10.6 (66) drew South Melbourne 10.6 (66)
Geelong 7.12 (54) drew Melbourne 7.12 (54)

VFL, Round 1, 1914:
Collingwood 8.8 (56) drew Carlton 6.20 (56)
Geelong 8.13 (61) drew Essendon 8.13 (61)

VFL, Round 5, 1921:
St. Kilda 12.18 (90) drew Melbourne 13.12 (90)
South Melbourne 10.10 (70) drew Carlton 10.10 (70)

VFL, Round 6, 1944:
Richmond 19.11 (125) drew Footscray 18.17 (125)
St. Kilda 9.17 (71) drew Essendon 9.17 (71)

VFA, Round 13, 1951:
Oakleigh 5.18 (48) drew Brunswick 6.12 (48)
Box Hill 8.8 (56) drew Williamstown 8.8 (56)

VFA, Round 10, 1954:
Northcote 7.15 (57) drew Oakleigh 8.9 (57)
Brighton 11.12 (78) drew Coburg 11.12 (78)

SANFL, Round 9, 1958:
Norwood 13.16 (94) drew Sturt 13.16 (94)
West Torrens 9.7 (61) drew South Adelaide 7.19 (61)

VFA Division 1, Round 9, 1964:
Preston 12.12 (84) drew Waverley 11.18 (84)
Dandenong 11.16 (82) drew Brunswick 12.10 (82)

VFL, Round 7, 1977:
Essendon 15.9 (99) drew Richmond 14.15 (99)
St. Kilda 14.14 (98) drew South Melbourne 14.14 (98)

Tallangatta DFL, Round 6, 2019:
Kiewa-Sandy Creek 17.7 (109) drew Barnawartha 17.7 (109)
Dederang-Mount Beauty 8.5 (53) drew Tallangatta 7.11 (53)
 
1995 Great Northern FL, May 28, 1995
Northampton were leading comfortably at halftime against Dongara: 20.0 to 3.2. Might be the most accurate half of footy by a team that I've ever found. At three quarter time, they had 26.3. I wonder when the first behind got kicked...
 
Connor7395 said:
1995 Great Northern FL, May 28, 1995
Northampton were leading comfortably at halftime against Dongara: 20.0 to 3.2. Might be the most accurate half of footy by a team that I've ever found. At three quarter time, they had 26.3. I wonder when the first behind got kicked...
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Great find!
What makes that stat even more amazing is having grown up in the Mid West, it's a bloody windy place.
 
Did anyone bring up how weird the 2021 AFL Grand Final score progression is? The Western Bulldogs led by 19 points with 8:46 minutes left to go in the third quarter, but lose the game by 74 points.
 

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