Weird football scores

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Catsace said:
Geelong were involved in a couple of defeats with a scoring surge of similar magnitude in 1986 and in Rd 1 1990. Against Essendon (Jacko's last game) in Rd 2, 1986, Geelong eked ahead of the Bombers 7.4.46 to 6.9.45 during the earlier part of the 3rd quarter, before getting pummeled 21.22.148 to 7.9.51, a turnaround of almost 100 points.

That Rd 1 1990 game, Grand Final rematch with Hawthorn and Geelong, well at VFL park Geelong again nosed ahead in the 3rd quarter by a point before a Hawk explosion where they added 19 goals to virtually zero and turn that narrow deficit into a 115 point whipping.

But in a Grand Final i am sure there's been no reversal of form to that extent, although the Bombers turned a19 pt 3/4 time deficit into a 24 pt win with their famous last quarter against the Hawks in 1984.
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Not AFL, but I was happily listening to the radio coverage in Tassie of East v North Launceston in the mid 80's. East in front in Q3...then North kicks 10 goals in 7 minutes. That's not an approximation, that was the clock! North by 25 goals...
 

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TheSpaghettiBoy21 said:
What about that one where the Williamstown U19s kicked 110 goals?

Just found the score
Williamstown 110-27 (687)
Geelong West 2-0 (12)
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Wow...when was this? Were they having shots from the goal square most of the day....very accurate kicking. :D
 
Also another thing I noticed is the 1983 grand final.

Hawthorn 20.20 (140)
Essendon 8.9 (57)


The strange thing is, Hawthorn won that game by 83 points, and it was the 1983 GF.

 
Turkey Tom said:
Ah ok....12 players only turning up (and ending up with only 8 on the field) explains a lot!
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would have thought there'd be some kind of forfeit feature rather than just letting teams run up scores like that

they did well to score 2 goals, considering
 
TheSpaghettiBoy21 said:
Also another thing I noticed is the 1983 grand final.

Hawthorn 20.20 (140)
Essendon 8.9 (57)


The strange thing is, Hawthorn won that game by 83 points, and it was the 1983 GF.

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There's two other Grand Finals like this. Fitzroy defeated St Kilda by 13-points in the 1913 Grand Final, while Collingwood defeated Richmond by 29-points in the 1929 Grand Final.
 
The well known highest score of all time R7, 1992 where Geelong kicked 37.17.239 to the Bears 11.9.75

An almost more remarkable game occurred just over a year later, Round 8, 1993 where the Bears themselves had the chance to break that record in against Swans

HT score
Bears 19.10.124
Swans 0.4.4

3QT
Bears 27.17.179
Swans 2.6.18

As far as I'm aware this is the largest ever 3QT margin in VFL/AFL history (161 pts) and highest 3QT score. Fortunately for the Swans they found something in the last term, matched the Bears 6 goals and kept it to a ''respectable'' final margin of 162.

Final score
Brisbane 33.21.219
Swans 8.9.57

The Bears only won 4 games that year.

The previous year, Geelong kicked 14.3.87 in the final quarter to snatch the highest score record.
 
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Major Colvin said:
The well known highest score of all time R7, 1992 where Geelong kicked 37.17.239 to the Bears 11.9.75
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Have that game on DVD somewhere....problem is there was no on-screen score board during the game and you can only see the score when the camera shows the ground scoreboard. So it is a bit frustrating to watch!
I assume there was some issue transferring the broadcast to the DVD...and yes the DVD is a legal one...think I bought it from 'Name A Game' when they existed.
 

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Major Colvin said:
The well known highest score of all time R7, 1992 where Geelong kicked 37.17.239 to the Bears 11.9.75

An almost more remarkable game occurred just over a year later, Round 8, 1993 where the Bears themselves had the chance to break that record in against Swans

HT score
Bears 19.10.124
Swans 0.4.4

3QT
Bears 27.17.179
Swans 2.6.18

As far as I'm aware this is the largest ever 3QT margin in VFL/AFL history (161 pts) and highest 3QT score. Fortunately for the Swans they found something in the last term, matched the Bears 6 goals and kept it to a ''respectable'' final margin of 162.

Final score
Brisbane 33.21.219
Swans 8.9.57

The Bears only won 4 games that year.

The previous year, Geelong kicked 14.3.87 in the final quarter to snatch the highest score record.
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An interesting piece of side trivia from this is that John Hutton who kicked 8 goals for the Brisbane Bears in the 164-point loss to Geelong was a surprise delisting by Brisbane in the 1993 pre-season and was drafted by the Sydney Swans, however he did not play in the Brisbane vs. Sydney game in Round 8. He was though one of Sydney's best with 4 goals in a Round 6 1993 match against North Melbourne at Princes Park, in which the Kangaroos defeated the Swans 35.19-229 to 16.9-105.
 
situationz said:
Round 13, 2021: Adelaide didn't score until halfway through the second quarter and still beat St Kilda
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That may be something of a record actually, given that no team has won a match after failing to score in the first half. That ignominy has been suffered only three times since 1903 — by Carlton against South Melbourne in 1924, and twice by Fitzroy against Footscray in 1953 and Essendon in 1995.

The fewest scoring shots to half-time by a winning team has been two, on five occasions — the last of which was by the Crows themselves in Round 9 of 1995 against Hawthorn. Apart from that game, no team has won with fewer than four shots to half-time since 1918. Of the thirteen teams that have won with only four scoring shots to half-time since 1919, only two were scoreless at quarter-time:
  1. St. Kilda against Essendon in Round 13, 1919
    • this was the game following the Saints conceding 17-4 (106) to South Melbourne in the last quarter the previous weekend
  2. Richmond against Hawthorn in Round 13, 1956
A look through the Age and Argus at that 1956 game does not say much about when Richmond first scored, so the Crows might still be close to an all-time record.

The (in)famous game between Geelong and Footscray on a flooded Kardinia Park on Easter Monday, 1965, saw Geelong win after being scoreless — for the last time to date — at quarter-time and 3-2 (20) at half-time. I vaguely recall reading that Geelong got on the board quite early in the second quarter, but cannot confirm this from Age reports available at home.

Another case — Melbourne against North Melbourne in Round 15 of 1968 — I can get even less information about, but given that it was a day of violent winds at Arden Street one would think that the Demons scored earlier than half-way through the second quarter.
 
What was it with strange scoring the 1975 SANFL finals series?

In the Elimination Final the Port Adelaide Magpies kicked an atrocious 11.32-98, still easily beating an equally poor-kicking North Adelaide Roosters which kicked 8.20-68 in a match that produced a mind-boggling aggregate score of 19.52-166.

Port certainly improved their kicking for the First Semi Final, kicking an accurate 18.12-120 to demolish Sturt, the Double Blues kicking an appalling 5.23-53. In the Qualifying Final the previous week Sturt's accurate 15.10-100 had saved it from a bigger defeat against an inaccurate Glenelg in a high-scoring match.
The Preliminary Final saw Port take on Norwood. Port kicked a relatively even 8.7-55 but were no match for the Redlegs, Norwood's inaccuracy in kicking 11.19-85 not hindering their entry to the 1975 Grand Final, which they defeated Glenelg in a low scoring match 9.10-64 to 7.10-52. The Tigers and Redlegs had played in the Second Semi Final, and this had produced a high scoring and accurate match won by Glenelg 21.9-135 to 16.10-106
 
That Elimination Final is truly astonishing. Although Adelaide in the spring is often extremely windy which can lead to extremes of inaccuracy — for instance South Mlebourne’s 8-30 against Geelong in 1944 was on a dry, warm but windy day — that day was not particularly windy judging by the footage I have seen on YouTube.

The 52 aggregate behinds is one greater than the VFL/AFL record from the previous season’s Round 21 game between Richmond and South Melbourne, and at times one thinks that the extreme inaccuracy was a case of Port going down to North Adelaide’s level. The Roosters, who had fallen from 16–5 to 7–15 in 1974, were fifth of ten teams despite being just 8–10 with a poor percentage. This is about the worst peacetime record for a finalist in a major football league, and North Adelaide would win just 36 percent of its games between 1974 and 1984.

I have no footage whatsoever of the First Semi when Sturt kicked extremely inaccurately, but I have read a good deal about how windswept the day of the Grand Final was. Unlike the first three weeks of that season’s VFL finals, the weather was dry, but the strong winds that could funnel down Football Park handicapped a Glenelg team that had averaged almost 160 points per game in the minor round, so that underdogs Norwood could hold the Tigers to a third their season’s average score.
 
With regard to wayward kicking in finals matches at Football Park, I've highlighted the 1974 2nd Semi before.
This was the first year of footy at West Lakes, a location which never offered a great deal of protection from harsh weather.

In that game Sturt were 3.15 to Port's 6.8 at 3 qtr time, but still managed to get up by 5 points.
I've mentioned it again because Sturt were probably the worst offenders overall when it came to inaccurate kicking in finals at Football Park:

1974 2nd Semi: 7.19 (W)
1974 GF: 9.16 (W)
1975 1st Semi: 5.23 (L)
1976 QF: 16.17 (L)
1976 1st Semi: 17.23 (W)
1978 2nd Semi: 13.19 (W)
1978 GF: 14.26 (L)
1980 QF: 16.23 (W)
1980 PF: 14.16 (L)
1982 QF: 10.15 (L)
1982 1st Semi: 9.18 (L)
1983 QF: 12.14 (L)

Not always costly, but not a great track record overall.
In some cases weather would have contributed, but not in all cases.
Their most infamous match for inaccuracy was the 1978 GF where Sturt kept the door open for Norwood to end up triumphing by a point.
 
mianfei said:
That Elimination Final is truly astonishing. Although Adelaide in the spring is often extremely windy which can lead to extremes of inaccuracy — for instance South Mlebourne’s 8-30 against Geelong in 1944 was on a dry, warm but windy day — that day was not particularly windy judging by the footage I have seen on YouTube.

The 52 aggregate behinds is one greater than the VFL/AFL record from the previous season’s Round 21 game between Richmond and South Melbourne, and at times one thinks that the extreme inaccuracy was a case of Port going down to North Adelaide’s level. The Roosters, who had fallen from 16–5 to 7–15 in 1974, were fifth of ten teams despite being just 8–10 with a poor percentage. This is about the worst peacetime record for a finalist in a major football league, and North Adelaide would win just 36 percent of its games between 1974 and 1984.

I have no footage whatsoever of the First Semi when Sturt kicked extremely inaccurately, but I have read a good deal about how windswept the day of the Grand Final was. Unlike the first three weeks of that season’s VFL finals, the weather was dry, but the strong winds that could funnel down Football Park handicapped a Glenelg team that had averaged almost 160 points per game in the minor round, so that underdogs Norwood could hold the Tigers to a third their season’s average score.
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Both the 1974 and 1975 SANFL GFs were very windy days (1979 was also a real stinker of a day).
I've watched some footage from the 1974 final where Rick Davies appears to be centering the ball towards the goal square, but the wind carries it through for a goal. In the match footage of the 1975 final you can clearly see the goal posts swinging in the strong wind.

No doubt the conditions kept scores down (the 1975 2nd Semi was much higher scoring).
Glenelg weren't helped though when Fred Phillis, their century goal kicker, could only manage 0.6 for the match.

In regards to North Adelaide's demise, I would expect that was in part due to Barrie Robran being cut down by his knee injury in 1974.
It wouldn't be until the Mick Nunan era that they would become a strong team again, eventually winning the flag in 1987.
 
mianfei said:
The 52 aggregate behinds is one greater than the VFL/AFL record from the previous season’s Round 21 game between Richmond and South Melbourne, and at times one thinks that the extreme inaccuracy was a case of Port going down to North Adelaide’s level. The Roosters, who had fallen from 16–5 to 7–15 in 1974, were fifth of ten teams despite being just 8–10 with a poor percentage. This is about the worst peacetime record for a finalist in a major football league, and North Adelaide would win just 36 percent of its games between 1974 and 1984.
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An interesting thing I've noticed about the SANFL which you don't see to the same extent in the equivalent WAFL and VFL/VFA competitions is how frequently competing teams have very good eras and very bad eras and sometimes mediocre eras get stuck in the middle for years on end, not making the finals but not being an easy-beat either. North Adelaide are a good example from the mid 1970s-mid 1980s, despite a poor record the Roosters only finished last once and that was in 1978, and for the first time since 1912.

As just some examples of good teams for a long period, Port Adelaide have had some very dominant eras winning many flags in a short space of seasons, Sturt had a golden era in the late 1960s, Central Districts made every Grand Final from 2000-2011 inclusive winning 9 before backing this up with 12 years of mediocrity while Norwood took out a hat-trick of flags from 2012-2014.

At the other end of the scale, Sturt won 8 consecutive wooden spoons from 1989-1996, Glenelg had a bad run in the late 1990s/early 2000s finishing bottom in 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2002. Woodville were last every year from 1980-1985 inclusive with West Torrens second last every year 1981-1985; South Adelaide won 11 wooden spoons in 19 seasons 1945-1963 and the enigmatic West Adelaide have had some terrible stretches. The Bloods finished last three times in a row 1972-1974, four successive last placed finishes in 2005-2008 and their record since a drought-breaking flag in 2015 has been horrible, with three wooden spoons, two second last place finishes and nowhere near the finals in the other season.
 
Fitzroy might have beaten South Melbourne at the Brunswick Street Oval in Round 9 1940 to claim the 4 points, but boy did the Lions make it look like hard work in the 13-point win over the Swans. The final scores were a mind-boggling 10.30-90 to Fitzroy over South Melbourne's 10.17-77. Did anybody think to remind the Lions and to a lesser degree the Swans that the objective in Australian Rules Football is to kick the football through the two large goalposts in the center, not between the goal and point posts, to hit the goal posts or allow one's opponent to touch the ball on the way through?
 
emuboy said:
Thanks for clarifying this - it is astounding that there have been no WAFL games where a team has won with two less goals since 1975 - 45 years - with the exception of the South Fremantle - Perth game where the Bulldogs won with 3 less goals - and this itself was 36 years ago in 1984.

Sometimes the WAFL stats are more extraordinary for things that don't happen rather than things that do. For example, the WAFL's lack of draws where the most recent draw was in 2012, and the current draw droughts of the clubs are West Perth & East Perth (2012), Claremont & Swan Districts (2010), Perth (2009), Subiaco (2001), South Fremantle (1997), Peel Thunder (no draws since commencing in 1997) and East Fremantle (1989).
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Me and a mate Mike B set up a new West Perth cheer squad in Round 6, 1984 for the home game versus South Fremantle. The last game where we existed as a recognized group before we gave up and drifted apart was Round 1, 1986 versus Perth at Lathlain. Both these games were draws.
 

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Weird football scores

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