Gigs’ stats: Round 8: Unbeaten pair in line for record

Andrew Gigacz’s Round 8 Stat. Declaration

It appears that these are days of Dual Dominance. Last year, for the first time since 1936 and only the second time in history, we had two teams undefeated after eight rounds (Hawthorn and Geelong). It’s happened again in 2009, with St Kilda and Geelong both on eight wins. Only Brisbane and the Bulldogs respectively stand between these two sides and a new record of two teams being nine from nine. (As a Doggies supporter, this is one record I won’t mind NOT being broken.)

THIS WEEK’S THERMO-STAT: MAGPIES UNDER THE WEATHER

In walloping the Magpies by 51 points, Carlton scored 16.8. Coincidentally, 16.8 degrees Celsius was the average May maximum in 1964, the last year in which these two teams played a draw at Princes Park.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE EIGHTH KIND

The AFL’s big birds have done it again. The Swans’ five-point victory over the Eagles was the eighth occasion in their last ten meetings that the final margin has been less than a goal. In those encounters, Sydney’s winning margins have been 4, 1, 5 and 5, while West Coast’s have been 4, 2, 1 and 1.

CLUSTER BLUSTER

One of the latest buzz words in the footy world is “cluster”. Hawthorn’s successful rolling zone tactic last year was referred to commonly as “Clarko’s cluster”. This week we had another kind of cluster, involving seven of the sixteen teams. These teams all came within a goal of the magic 100 mark with Melbourne scoring 97, Richmond 99, West Coast 101, Port Adelaide 102, Carlton and the Bulldogs both 104 and Sydney 106.

SCORE WARS – Round 8 Update

And while all those scores were clustered around the 100 mark, no team scored exactly that. For the second week in a row the Sunday twilight winning score was 90, with St Kilda scoring 13.12 in defeating the Dons by nineteen points. 90 has now been a final score six times this season, giving it a lead over a logjam of scores that have registered four times: 65, 67, 86, 100, 104, 111 and 116. Two of last year’s regular scores, 114 (recorded 9 times in 2008) and 89 (7 times) have not yet been achieved this year.

THE MARGINAL MEDAL.

A five-way tie for the lead in this prestigious award, with margins of 4, 8, 17, 19 and 43 all recorded three times this season. The 2008 winner, 30 points, has been seen only once this year.

BELATED BIRTHDAY WISHES

Having Daniel Kerr miss out on Saturday night’s match against the Swans may have hurt the Eagles in more ways than one. A groin injury prevented Kerr from fronting up against Sydney on his 26th birthday. So far in 2009, four players have participated in AFL games on their birthdays. All four have emerged victorious: Daniel Jackson (25 April, Richmond defeated North Melbourne), Nick Suban (9 May, Fremantle defeated Carlton), Scott Thompson (9 May, North Melbourne defeated Port) and Mitch Hahn (10 May, Bulldogs defeated Adelaide).

So the message to coaches is clear: find someone in your list who is born on the date of your game and given them a run!

‘LESS THAN 3’-FREE

With Port Adelaide’s three-point win over Richmond on Sunday, we finally cracked it for a game with a margin less than four points. It’s the first time since 1962 that a season has gone so deep before a result as close as that has occurred.

So with that little record busted, attention turns to games with margins under three points. The last time we had a season open with eight weeks where no margins under three points were recorded was 1984.

COLLINGWOOD’S YO-YO NO-NO

The Swans yo-yo is the only one left spinning after Collingwood lost their second game in a row at the weekend. Sydney’s 2009 win-loss sequence is now LWLWLWLW. The Bulldogs remain on track for the Slow Yo-Yo award with their sequence currently WWWLLLWW.

THIS WEEK’S VINTAGE YEAR

Richmond’s quarter-by-quarter behind sequence was a hidden tribute to this year’s Eurovison Song Contest winner, Norway. The sequence was 1, 1, 3, 4 and any good Norwegian historian would know that 1134 was the year that Magnus the Blind knocked off Harald at the Battle of Färlev to maintain his reign over Norway.

2.2 WAS ONE TOO…

An unusually high number of quarter-by-quarter scores this week had sides with the same number of goals as behinds at the various breaks. At quarter-time Freo were 2.2, while the Dogs and the Roos were 3.3 at quarter-time and half-time respectively. Adelaide were 5.5 at quarter-time while West Coast were 6.6 at half-time, as were North Melbourne at three- quarter time. Adelaide and St Kilda ate their three quarter time oranges sitting on 9.9 and 11.11, after the Saints had been 8.8 at half-time. In the end the Kangaroos finished off the phenomenon with a final score of 7.7.

That’s ten occurrences for the round, the most this year and possibly the most for a much longer period (Gig-Dig No.3 coming up).

GOOD OMEN OF THE WEEK

One for the Doggies. Geelong had an indifferent start to their premiership year of 2007. After round six they were 3-3 and their wins in Rounds 7 and 8, while comfortable, gave no real indication of what was to come. After Round 8 they were sitting third with five wins. So it’s over to Rodney Eade and his boys for 2009…

THIS WEEK’S RIDICULOUS FOOTY ANAGRAM:

A man many thought was well past his best is Port Adelaide’s ex-captain Warren Tredrea. Since injuring his knee in 2006, Tredrea has battled to overcome fitness and form problems. In 2009 he has turned things around with an excellent season, highlighted by a seven-goal bag against Richmond on Sunday. His heroics in kicking the match-winning goal with less than two minutes on the clock and then taking the match-saving mark with under a minute left underscored his influence. Given that old-man Warren suddenly looks as good as new, it’s fitting that Tredrea is an anagram of “RETREAD”…

About Andrew Gigacz

Well, here we are. The Bulldogs have won a flag. What do I do now?

Comments

  1. Peter Schumacher says

    Hi Gigs,

    How on earth do you keep coming up with this stuff. The only thing that I can come up with is when was the last time that a full forward prepared for his retirement by starting up a carpentry apprenticeship?

    Peter S

  2. Hi Peter. Half the time I don’t know where I get this stuff myself. I’ll be out on a walk and some random stat pops into my head. Getting out through this forum rather than foisting it on my wife and kids could save my marriage…

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