GigStuff 55

 

by Andrew Gigacz

THERE’S TONS TO TALK ABOUT

Over the past few days I haven’t been able to get the Crowded House song, Four Seasons in One Day, out of my head. But as I’ve been singing it, in my mind and occassionally (to the great annoyance of my sons) out loud, the first line of the song has changed to “Three hundreds in one round…”

And that’s because that’s exactly what we’ve had. Three sides in Round 13 scored the even ton. The Dogs scored 14.16 Friday night to break a four-game losing streak; Geelong followed it up on Saturday evening with 15.10 against the Saints; and then Carlton drove another nail into the coffin of their Sydney Swans hoodoo with the same score yesterday.

Almanacker David Bruce (aka WestCoastDave) also pointed out to me that the eight winning scores in this round were all three figures and the eight losing scores were all two figures. The last time that happened was in Round 4 last year, and that round also included a score of exactly 100.

TON UP? ALMOST NOT QUITE

But, fellow Footy Almanackers, the triple-ton might so easily NOT have happened. The Bulldogs only reached the the 100 courtesy of a Callan Ward post-final-bell behind. And exactly a day later, the J-Pod faced the same scenario. With an easy post-siren shot at goal, Podsiadly did the right thing statistically and kicked a shocker that scraped through for a point. Carlton’s last score on Sunday was also a behind, but that was a few minutes before the final bell went.

 

SCORE WARS

So how has the 100 triple-treat affected the Score Wars landscape? Well, you know, kinda sort of a little bit. 98 still leads the way, having registered seven times this year. There are four scores that have occurred five times each: 73, 84, 90 and 106. Meanwhile, 100 has joined a flood of final scores that have shown up four times in 2011: 124, 122, 105, 102, 101, 100, 89, 88, 85, 79, 72, 71, 65 and 52.

And in a classic case of ‘vote-pinching’, 97, just a point away from the most common score of the year, has not been seen once.

 

THE MARGINAL MEDAL

With more than half the season gone, this year’s Marginal Medal is the widest open in living memory – depending on how long you’ve lived and what kind of memory you have. No single margin has been recorded more than three times thus far in 2011. The margins that have been recorded three times are 0, 3, 20, 30, 52 and 71. Highly unusual for a margin as big as 71 to be leading the way so late in the year.

Breathing down the necks of those six margins (can a margin have a neck?) are another TWENTY-TWO! They are: 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 16, 18, 19, 22, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 46, 47, 57, 61, 62 and 66.

17 and 23 are the only two margins not seen yet this year. In fact, until Round 12, when Fremantle defeated Essendon by 34 points, the margins 17, 34 and 51 had not been seen throughout this season and last. Interesting to note that all three margins are multiples of 17. The drought for 17 and 51 continues.

 

TODAY’S HOROSCOPE

TAURUS – Firstly, Take An Umbrella; Rain’s Upcoming Soon.

 

POSTCODE OF THE WEEK

In case you weren’t aware, Almanacker “Rocket” Rod Gillett is on the move from Abu Dhabi. Read Haje Halabi’s wonderful tribute to Rocket here. But Haje was not the only one to pay tribute to Rod last week. On Friday night, the Western Bulldogs combined to form their own homage to Rocket by posting a quarter-time score of 2.4 to 6.2. The postcode 2462 belongs to GILLETT’S RIDGE.

 

RIDICULOUS FOOTY ANAGRAM OF THE WEEK

But why stop there? Let’s pay tribute to Rod Gillett anagrammatically as well. I don’t actually have any idea of why Rod went to the oil capital of the world in the first place. But maybe the letters of his name reveal the answer: TO GET DRILL.

PS

Thanks to all those who keep buying the Saturday Age and reading Giga Bites. If you missed last Saturday’s you can catch it here.

 

 

 

About Andrew Gigacz

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

Comments

  1. Peter Flynn says

    Gigs,

    Given the presence of volcanic ash in the upper-atmosphere from the Puyehue volcano, do you reckon you could get a team of Ashley’s up and running?

    Cheers,

    Ashley Mallett

  2. Flynny, I was born on Ash Wednesday 1965 and the local nuns (the Sisters of St Joseph to be precise) were disappointed in my Mum for not giving me that very name. I like that challenge. I’ll see what I can do.

  3. Peter Flynn says

    It’d be a great get.

    Cheers,

    Ashley (&) Martin

  4. John Butler says

    Ashley Judd

  5. John Butler says

    Laura Ashley

  6. At this rate, we’ll have a team together in no time.

  7. John Butler says

    Ashley Giles

  8. Peter Flynn says

    The delightful Asher Keddie. I believe she is related to the last-quarter specialist.

    Club song: Brimful of Asha

  9. Peter, terrible idea. Many people are being put out by this volcano business. You should be Ashamed.

  10. The Krakouertoa Brothers?

  11. Wait…I’m getting mixed up with the Olsen twins Kate & Ashley

  12. Ian Syson says

    Arthur Ashe?

  13. Dave Nadel says

    Ashes to Ashes
    Dust to Dust
    If Cloke doesn’t kick one
    The Dawesy must.

    Oh, sorry, have I gone off topic?

  14. Ian Syson says

    And, Dave, do the Collingwood fans actually sing that?

    Ashley Young has just been transferred to Man U for 15 mill pounds.

  15. Dave Nadel says

    Ian, the only thing that Collingwood fans sing is “Good Old Collingwood Forever. The Collingwod chant (pinched from British Soccer) is one of only two innovations that our fans have initiated in decades. The other is the chant of Tooooooooooves every time Alan Toovey touches the ball.

    Crowds singing at the Football (Welsh Rugby as well as English and Scottish soccer) is one aspect of British football that I really do admire.

  16. Ashley Wednesday

  17. John Butler says

    Ashley is a place name, a surname as well as both a male and female given name. A place name and surname, it is derived from the Old English words ‘æsc’ (ash) and ‘l?ah’ (meadow).

    Courtesy of Wikipedia.

  18. John Butler says

    Dips

    Doesn’t have quite the same ring as Ruby Tuesday does it?

  19. Going back to Flynny’s (a seven letter word without a vowel; I really enjoy the rhythms such words create) first comment, I wonder how often in his career Ashley MALLETT’s bowling got HAMMERED…

  20. Dips’ and JB’s comments take us back to dream guests on Q&A: Jack Mundey, Ruby Tuesday, Ashley Wednesday, Detective Joe Friday…

  21. Dave Nadel says

    And the early twentieth century evangelist, Billy Sunday.

  22. Dave Nadel says

    Just looked Billy Sunday up on Wikipedia. Not only was he a professional baseballer before he “found God” but his middle name was……..Ashley.

  23. Now that IS spooky.

  24. And for all you Hawks fans looking for an omen for this Friday’s match, today (23rd of June) marks 1,111 days since the Hawks walloped the Bombers by 51 points at Idiot Stadium on a Saturday night. Of course, there’ll be no Buddy this week. On that night he got 9 goals and 3 Brownlow votes.

    9 goals = 54 points. Hmmm. Could be a thriller!

  25. Rocket came to educate the masses, inspire the Falcons and met people.

  26. You blokes are slipping. No one has pointed out that it was in fact Easton Wood and not Callan Ward (as I stated) who kicked the point after the siren to take the Dogs to 100 last Friday night.

    Lift your game, Knackers!

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