Gigs’ Stats Entertainment Round 9

by Andrew Gigacz

TWO-TWO BOO-BOO

A tutu on a Sunday might be fine if you have ballet practice, or even if you are South African bishop. But if there’s one thing the weekend taught us it’s that a score of 2.2 is NOT ok on a Sunday, especially in the first quarter. In Round 9’s Sunday games, three sides registered 2.2(14) in the first quarter. Those sides were Brisbane, Carlton and West Coast. All three of those teams lost. So for future reference, if your team plays on a Sunday and racks up 2.2 by quarter-time, you might want to think about heading down to church or maybe the ballet, because the prognosis for your team on that day will be none too-too good.

BEAU-BEAU NO NO

West Coast included Beau Wilkes for his first game of 2010 on Sunday, joining another Beau (Waters) in the team. With two Beaus on board, one could have perhaps expected some attractive football from the Eagles. Alas for them, neither the game nor the result was a pretty sight.

EIGHT-EIGHT’S GREAT WAIT

Still on the Saints and the Coasters, West Coast’s final score was 8.8(56). Nothing particularly special about that, but St Kilda’s final score was 13.13(91). Well you may ask, what’s interesting about that? Again, the answer is nothing. However, when you combine them in a final score for a single game you have an unprecedented achievement. In 113 years of VFL/AFL footy, a final score of 13.13 to 8.8 has NEVER been registered. We’ve had 13.13 to 7.7 (1998) and 13.13 to 9.9 (2002 and 1934). Once, in 1972, we got a result of 13.13 to 8.7. But those who watched the Saints knock off the Eagles were seeing history in the making.

NINE-NINE? NEIN! NEIN!

After stringing five wins in a row together, the Swans have taken a dive, losing their past three games. In each game they’ve managed just nine goals and in each of their last two losses, their score has been 9.9(63).

MID-THIRTIES MADNESS

When you reach your mid-forties (as, sadly, I have), sometimes you yearn for the good old “mid-thirties” days of yore. Happily, Round 9 was only too willing to accommodate those yearnings with half of this week’s margins ending up a good distance between 30 and 40. The Bombers and the Saints were dead-on with winning margins of 35 points, while Geelong’s Friday night Magpie-mauling amounted to a final margin of 36 points. And Freo added to the mid-thirties mayhem by winning their first game in Sydney since 1996 by 37 points.

THE MARGINAL MEDAL

 

And while on the topic of mid-thirties margins, the six-goal victory that Geelong chalked up on Friday night gave 36 a share of the lead in the race to the Marginal Medal. It’s shown up four times this year, with three of those games involving Collingwood, and two of them Geelong. It joins 3 in the lead, after Hawthorn’s 89-86 win against Richmond last week. All four 3-point wins have had a winning score ending in 9 and a losing score ending in 6.

SCORE WARS

And in Score Wars, 100 is the score of the year so far. After failing to register once in 2008, it hit back hard last year, occurring 8 times, and running out 5^th in the frequency stakes. This year it has taken all before it, and Freo’s 14.16 against Sydney on Saturday took 100 to the outright lead on 5. There’s a logjam of scores just behind on 4. They are 118, 93, 91, 86, 75 and 63.

1 v 100

There have been two one-point results this year, both involving Melbourne, for a balanced pain/pleasure ledger of one win (on Saturday night against Port) and one loss. It also means the ledger is now square for 2010 between margins of 1 and 100+. The two “tonne” margins were St Kilda’s 104-point flogging off North in Round 2 and Geelong’s 108-point whipping of Richmond in Round 6.

THE OMEN

116 is the omen score of the last seven years. Since 2003, five of the seven premiers have registered a home and away score of 116 at least once during their premiership seasons. The only exceptions to those years were 2003 and 2006. In both of those years, 116 was registered by Collingwood and Sydney, respectively, who were both the defeated Grand Final teams of those years. So, which teams have put their hands up for a potential Grand Final spot and maybe even the flag? So far, just the one: North Melbourne.

POSTCODE OF THE WEEK

How do you explain Hawthorn who, in scraping a win against Richmond last week, played like a bunch of boobs, and then just a single week later, were absolutely smoking as they tore the highly-fancied Blues apart? I certainly can’t explain it. So I’ll just point out that the Hawks’ quarter-by-quarter points tally on Sunday was 3,5,4,2 – and that 3542 is the postcode of TITTYBONG.

RIDICULOUS FOOTY ANAGRAM OF THE WEEK

 

If ever a player has taken the game by the scruff of the neck and dragged his team from potential loss to emphatic victory, then that player is Lenny “Lendog” Hayes. Lenny’s effort against the Eagles was nothing short of inspirational and Saints fans would have sat back a marvelled at the shining display. Perhaps many would have raised their glasses at the performance of LENDOG HAYES and said, “AH YES, GOLDEN!”