Almanac Oracle Competition 2019 – Presenting Oracle Dave Brown

 

At the beginning of the season, a number of intrepid Almanackers put forward their claim to be the Almanac Oracle by answering 15 this-or-that questions designed to separate the true footy prognosticators from the pretenders. With a few weeks remaining in the season, the title of Almanac Oracle was still up for grabs as there were six entrants still in contention.

 

But, in the end, there was one definitive winner. A man who had led for most of the year and who finished as the only contestant to have answered 12 of the 15 questions correctly.

 

Before The Oracle is duly celebrated, honourable mentions must be made of two of his fellow competitors.

 

Firstly, Raymond Knight, who finished the Challenge in second place with 11 correct responses – a sterling performance indeed.

 

And secondly, Mick Jeffrey, who finished the Challenge in fourth place even though he found himself ahead in the Challenge right up until the last round of voting on this year’s Brownlow Medal.

 

To recap those last tense moments:

Mr Jeffrey had 10 correct responses from the first 14 questions while Mr Brown had 11 correct responses, and they had chosen different answers to the final question. Had these two rivals finished the Challenge tied on 11, Mr Jeffrey would have won the Challenge as he had defeated Mr Brown in the Challenge’s tie-breaker question by providing a closer prediction to the final goalscoring tally of this year’s Coleman Medallist.

 

So, it was all down to the final question which was phrased in this fashion at the start of the year:

Max Gawn has polled 43 Brownlow Votes over 99 games, at a rate of 0.4343 per game. Zach Merrett has polled 45 votes over 103 games, at a rate of 0.4369 per game. At year’s end, which player will be higher on the Brownlow Votes Per Games Played list?

 

Going into Round 23 on Brownlow night, Mr Jeffrey had one hand on the Oracle title as his pick – Merrett – was leading Gawn by 0.00875 votes per game. But then came the Demons’ final round match against Kangaroos in which Gawn’s 26 disposals, 8 marks, 3 goals, and 41 hitouts earned him 3 votes, leaving the end-of-season tally:

Max Gawn = 60 votes from 117 games – 0.5128 per game

Zach Merrett = 61 votes from 123 games – 0.4959 per game.

And there, in that final vote of the final round of the 2019 season, a true Oracle was crowned.

 

I ask you all now to stand and charge your glasses…

To Oracle Dave Brown.

As good a footy mind as this here Almanac has ever seen.

 

 

Just in case you missed the links above:

To read EPO’s invitation to join the competition as well as the actual questions that constituted the challenge, click HERE.

To read an August update on the progress of the competition, click HERE.

 

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

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About Edward P. Olsen

EPO is equally passionate about sport and sports writing. While others toil away at the local indoor sports centre re-living their futile childhood dreams of being one of the best of all time, he types away at home re-living his futile childhood dream of being one of the world’s great columnists.

Comments

  1. Truly humbled, thanks to parents, family, friends and white wine without which none of this would be possible

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