Weird football scores

Remove this Banner Ad

Connor7395 said:
VFL, Round 7, 1977:
Essendon 15.9 (99) drew Richmond 14.15 (99)
St. Kilda 14.14 (98) drew South Melbourne 14.14 (98)
Click to expand...
This match was also Tim Watson's debut - against the club that he grew up supporting and his family supported - he tells the story that his old man basically told him in the car park beforehand to throw the game if it was close at the end and he wasn't joking.:$
 
Last edited:
Last Sunday's WAFL first-semi final between the Subiaco Lions and Claremont Tigers produced a very strange game indeed. Tipped to be a tight contest between two of the WAFL's strongest teams and played on a fine day, a large crowd packed into Leederville Oval to watch the match between the fierce rivals, Claremont and Subiaco playing the Western Suburbs derby.

At the start it looked like that it was going to be an absolute rout, with Subiaco having 5.3 by the 15-minute mark and Claremont not having scored, and it seemed that the Lions would lead by over 10 goals by half time. However, the Tigers awoke and began to tag and shut down the Lions, scoring 2 goals themselves to steady the ship by quarter time.

In the second term, Subiaco seemed likely to break away again, but terrible kicking and missing many easy shots gave them 0.7 for the term, while Claremont scored 1.1 themselves, the Tigers not punishing the Lions for their inaccuracy. After the long term Subiaco again struggled to convert their scoring opportunities, but Claremont were deadly accurate from less forward forays and scored 5.0 for the quarter, the three quarter time break seeing the on-target Tigers at 8.1-49, more goals than their opponents but trailing the Lions by six points, Subiaco's score 7.13-55.

Fans braced themselves for a tight and thrilling final quarter - but it didn't happen. Claremont failed to score at all in the last term, while Subiaco ran away the match to win easily by 40-points.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

On the eve of the 2023 SANFL Grand Final between Glenelg and Sturt, it's time to revisit their last clash in the season decider, back in 1974.

Sturt were minor premiers and had gone straight into the GF after a narrow 5 point win over Port in the Second Semi Final (another weird scores match), while reigning premiers Glenelg who had finished 4th in the minor round, found September form and made the GF from the Elimination Final.

Sturt won the the toss on a very wet and windy day for the first GF at Football Park.
The Double Blues certainly didn't waste the breeze, storming out to a big lead at quarter time.
Remarkably though, they wouldn't kick another goal until the final quarter, against the breeze.

After a tight first half, Glenelg came out fighting to keep Sturt goal-less in the 3rd quarter, while kicking 2 goals into the strong breeze to bridge the margin to just 5 points at 3 QT.

Were Glenelg about to create an upset with the gale at their backs?
No, Sturt fought back and finished strongly to take out the flag.



Sturt6.56.66.129.1670Sat 28-Sep-1974 2:10 pmFootball Park58,113
Glenelg0.14.66.78.755Sturt won by 15 points


 
In 1991, Collingwood and Footscray played twice. At half~ time in round 1 at Waverley, the Dogs lead 9~6~60 to 4~11~35. The final score was Collingwood 21~20~146 to 11~10~76. In the return game at Victoria park, early in the 3rd quarter, the Dogs enjoyed a healthy 24 point advantage, 10~1~61 to 5~7~37, before having an eerily similar fadeout, losing 13~2~80 to 20~13~133, meaning that in a period equivalent to one game, the lopsided scores were Pies 32~15~207 to 5~5~35.
 
dalkin47 said:
In 1991, Collingwood and Footscray played twice. At half~ time in round 1 at Waverley, the Dogs lead 9~6~60 to 4~11~35. The final score was Collingwood 21~20~146 to 11~10~76. In the return game at Victoria Park, early in the 3rd quarter, the Dogs enjoyed a healthy 24 point advantage, 10~1~61 to 5~7~37, before having an eerily similar fadeout, losing 13~2~80 to 20~13~133, meaning that in a period equivalent to one game, the lopsided scores were Pies 32~15~207 to 5~5~35.
Click to expand...
I remember that opening round game well from the time — a four-game round (seven byes to equalise the season) with startling wins by West Coast’s champion defence (36 points per game fewer than any other team in the first eight matches of 1991) and debutant Adelaide. The Collingwood runaway was equally surprising after what Footscray achieved in 1990.

I was last night rewatching a somewhat similar Magpie rout of Fitzroy at VFL Park from Round 16, 1986. Fitzroy late in the second quarter led Collingwood 10-4 (64) to 4-6 (30) but Collingwood then kicked 13-5 (83) to 0-4 (4) before Fitzroy kicked another goal. For the remainder of the match Collingwood kicked 16-6 (102) to 2-9 (21), ultimately winning by 47 points. What is more amazing is that Brian Taylor, the leading goalkicker of that season, kicked only the first two of those sixteen goals, so the Magpies kicked fourteen goals without Taylor kicking a single one. Instead, veteran Ricky Barham and youngster Robert Handley kicked seven between them. An oddity from that game is seeing Peter Daicos — moved to the unfamiliar position of ruck-rover — getting kicks on the full back line.

What’s amazing is that the following week Fitzroy, in muddy conditions where Hawthorn normally excelled, would kick 10-3 (63) to 0-1 (1) from early in the third quarter to thrash the top-of-the-ladder Hawks by 51 points!
 
Last edited:
Interceptor said:
On the eve of the 2023 SANFL Grand Final between Glenelg and Sturt, it's time to revisit their last clash in the season decider, back in 1974.

Sturt were minor premiers and had gone straight into the GF after a narrow 5 point win over Port in the Second Semi Final (another weird scores match), while reigning premiers Glenelg who had finished 4th in the minor round, found September form and made the GF from the Elimination Final.

Sturt won the the toss on a very wet and windy day for the first GF at Football Park.
The Double Blues certainly didn't waste the breeze, storming out to a big lead at quarter time.
Remarkably though, they wouldn't kick another goal until the final quarter, against the breeze.

After a tight first half, Glenelg came out fighting to keep Sturt goal-less in the 3rd quarter, while kicking 2 goals into the strong breeze to bridge the margin to just 5 points at 3 QT.

Were Glenelg about to create an upset with the gale at their backs?
No, Sturt fought back and finished strongly to take out the flag.

Sturt6.56.66.129.1670Sat 28-Sep-1974 2:10 pmFootball Park58,113
Glenelg0.14.66.78.755Sturt won by 15 points
Click to expand...
In the VFL/AFL, only two teams since 1919 have won goalless in the second and third quarters:
  1. Carlton against Richmond in an impossible cross-wind in 1927
  2. Sydney against Essendon in 1989
    • a week before the Bombers would become that last team to win kicking only three goals
North Melbourne managed to draw the first 1977 Grand Final without goalling in the second and third quarters on a perfectly dry afternoon, creating an amazing near-parallel because the three seasons of 1927, 1977 and 1989 contained the only games where both teams scored fewer than three goals since 1911.

Sturt’s two 1974 finals — in very wet and windy weather — are thus amazing. One win without goalling in the second and third quarters, and in the second semi Port Adelaide went within five points of doing the same! In fact, the Magpies, who had won fifteen consecutive matches and played eighteen without defeat, kicked more goals than Sturt in the second semi despite losing by five points.

During this unbeaten streak, the Magpies did however nearly get overrun by Glenelg after being 56 points ahead at three-quarter time. In fact, the black and golds kicked 8-16 (64) in the final quarter, which is equal to the most behinds by a team in a quarter in VFL/AFL football. Although they lost the match, Glenelg’s 24 scoring shots in the last quarter is three more than the VFL/AFL record, and the aggregate of 28 scoring shots two more.
 
Last edited:

(Log in to remove this ad.)

I wonder if anyone has noted this game from Round 13, 1978 (the same afternoon Templeton and Dunstan kicked 22 between them) at Windy Hill:
Q1Q2Q3Q4
Essendon1-6 (12)2-12 (24)7-16 (58)12-26 (98)
Collingwood3-2 (20)9-8 (62)11-14 (80)14-21 (105)
25 aggregate scoring shots in the last quarter — equal fifth-highest but only one behind the record) in the last quarter for an aggregate of 8-17 (65)! Essendon — behind all day — stormed home to only just fail.

Actually, when I checked, I also noticed this game from Round 6, 1982:
Q1Q2Q3Q4
St. Kilda3-2 (20)7-4 (46)8-6 (54)11-14 (80)
Carlton7-2 (44)11-6 (72)13-12 (90)16-22 (118)
That is a last quarter score of 6-18 (54) — the most aggregate behinds in any final ¼. The match score does not look so bad, but 6-18 (54) in the last ¼ is pretty awful even if it was very windy (as the preceding round had been).
 
What would be interesting re VFL/AFL - given the sentiment of a few earlier posters - where there were dramatic turn arounds mid game ,is how many sides won by 100 plus points after trailing at Quarter time

Round 6 - 1976 Essendon v Footscray at Windy hill

Ess 6.6 9.6 11.9 13.11
Foot 5.1 12.5 18.11 29.15

Scrays won by exactly 100 pts after trailing by 11 pts at Qtr TIME

Some of these turn arounds back in the day during the game - Geelong have got a few absolute horrors , mid 80s - allways
at Princess Park against Hawthorn , basically level at h/time , in the 2nd half something like 19 goals to 1 - couldnt they slow
the game dowm a bit , put a few spare blokes in defence - hah
 
Goggin Our Best said:
What would be interesting re VFL/AFL - given the sentiment of a few earlier posters - where there were dramatic turn arounds mid game ,is how many sides won by 100 plus points after trailing at Quarter time

Round 6 - 1977 Essendon v Footscray at Windy hill

Ess 6.6 9.6 11.9 13.11
Foot 5.1 12.5 18.11 29.15

Scrays won by exactly 100 pts after trailing by 11 pts at Qtr TIME

Some of these turn arounds back in the day during the game - Geelong have got a few absolute horrors , mid 80s - allways
at Princess Park against Hawthorn , basically level at h/time , in the 2nd half something like 19 goals to 1 - couldnt they slow
the game dowm a bit , put a few spare blokes in defence - hah
Click to expand...
That game was actually from 1977, not 1976.

Round 6, 1977 was one of the most amazing rounds ever played — Carlton and Essendon, two of the most successful clubs, both lost by 100 points, and Hawthorn set the amazing and virtually unbeatable record of 41 behinds and 66 scoring shots. That match, although it failed by two to equal the record 91 aggregate scoring shots of Richmond’s Round 21, 1974, game with South Melbourne, set a record 29 scoring shots in the second quarter and a last-quarter equal record of 26 scoring shots.

There are seventeen cases where a team won by 100 or more points after trailing at quarter time:
  1. Geelong against Hawthorn, Round 9, 1933
  2. Richmond against Collingwood, Round 3, 1942
  3. Fitzroy against South Melbourne, Round 18, 1961
  4. St. Kilda against Fitzroy, Round 14, 1963
  5. Richmond at Hawthorn (Glenferrie Oval), Round 16, 1967
    • six years to the day previously, the Tigers had scored 0-8 (8) — the only goalless score since 1921 — on a warm (19˚C) dry afternoon
    • that day the Tigers scored 23-30 (168) on a wet afternoon
  6. Carlton against St. Kilda, Round 19, 1976
  7. Footscray at Essendon (Windy Hill), Round 6, 1977
    • this would remain Essendon’s biggest-ever loss at Windy Hill and would double exactly the Bulldogs’ previous biggest win over the Bombers
  8. North Melbourne at Hawthorn (Princes Park), Round 21, 1979
  9. North Melbourne against Footscray (at the SCG), Round 5, 1980
  10. Richmond against St. Kilda (at the SCG), Round 16, 1980
  11. Collingwood against St. Kilda (at VFL Park), Round 17, 1980
    • the Saints in those two games set the unwanted record of conceding 30 goals in successive matches, which has never been suffered by any other team in history
    • ironically they had conceded only 6-14 (50) the previous week on a muddy Moorabbin agains South Melbourne, although the Swans’ score would prove the equal-lowest winning score between Round 13, 1977 and Round 16, 1984 inclusive
  12. Essendon at Footscray, Round 22, 1982
  13. Sydney at St. Kilda, Round 1, 1985
  14. Carlton against Brisbane, Round 10, 1987
  15. Hawthorn against Geelong (at VFL Park), Round 1, 1990
  16. Adelaide against Essendon, Round 20, 2015
  17. Richmond at Fremantle, Round 22, 2017
 
Few Grand Finals seem to end up on this list, but one which had very strange scoring patterns all afternoon was the 2001 WAFL Grand Final played by the East Perth Royals and South Fremantle Bulldogs as follows:

East Perth 2.7 7.12 11.12 17.18-120 d. South Fremantle 3.1 5.4 5.7 5.8-38

Of note:
  • South Fremantle's 3.1-19 in the first quarter was the same aggregate as their score for the rest of the game (2.7-19)
  • East Perth's opening quarter score of 2.7-19 matched South Fremantle's entire scoring output over the last three quarters.
  • East Perth were very inaccurate in the first term (2.7), 100% accurate in the third term (4.0) and had 50% accuracy in the second and fourth quarters (5.5 and 6.6 respectively).
  • South Fremantle didn't kick a goal in the third term with 0.3 contrasting with East Perth's 4.0 without a behind.
  • East Perth exactly doubled the 41-point three quarter time lead to a win of 82-points, with the Royals scoring 6.6-42 to 0.1-1 as they ran away from the Bulldogs in the final quarter to claim the premiership.
 
On remarkable case of score replication in the SANFL, which I may have noted earlier:

Round 9, 1979 (June 2 at Football Park):
South Adelaide2.2 (14)7.9 (51)11.13 (79)14.19 (103)
Sturt2.4 (16)4.5 (29)8.6 (54)15.6 (96)

Round 14, 1989 (July 14 at Adelaide Oval):
Sturt5.1 (31)9.2 (56)13.5 (83)15.6 (96)
South Adelaide5.3 (33)6.10 (46)11.16 (82)14.19 (103)
The same score in goals and behinds being repeated between the same two teams ten years apart!

What is amazing is that the duplicated match final scores were not merely between the same two clubs, but also won with fewer goals. In the VFL/AFL, I checked last night and found that:
  1. 33 different scorelines in goals and behinds that were won with fewer goals have been duplicated, or, in four cases, triplicated, but
  2. no scoreline where the winning team scored fewer goals has ever been repeated between the same two clubs, and
  3. only 70 of 276 (to 2017) matches where the winning team scored fewer goals have the same two-team scoreline in goals and behinds as another VFL/AFL match
    1. the remaining matches won with fewer goals have unique scorelines in goals and behinds
Sturt in 1979 would set a record equalled by Essendon the following year and North Melbourne in 2013 of losing three times with more goals in one season, doing so again in Round 10 and Round 17.
 
Last edited:
mianfei said:
On remarkable case of score replication in the SANFL, which I may have noted earlier:

Round 9, 1979 (June 2 at Football Park):
South Adelaide2.2 (14)7.9 (51)11.13 (79)14.19 (103)
Sturt2.4 (16)4.5 (29)8.6 (54)15.6 (96)

Round 14, 1989 (July 14 at Adelaide Oval):
Sturt5.1 (31)9.2 (56)13.5 (83)15.6 (96)
South Adelaide5.3 (33)6.10 (46)11.16 (82)14.19 (103)
The same score in goals and behinds being repeated between the same two teams ten years apart!

What is amazing is that the duplicated match final scores were not merely between the same two clubs, but also won with fewer goals. In the VFL/AFL, I checked last night and found that:
  1. 33 different scorelines in goals and behinds that were won with fewer goals have been duplicated, or, in four cases, triplicated, but
  2. no scoreline where the winning team scored fewer goals has ever been repeated between the same two clubs, and
  3. only 70 of 276 (to 2017) matches where the winning team scored fewer goals have the same two-team scoreline in goals and behinds as another VFL/AFL match
    1. the remaining matches won with fewer goals have unique scorelines in goals and behinds
Sturt in 1979 would set a record equalled by Essendon the following year and North Melbourne in 2013 of losing three times with more goals in one season, doing so again in Round 10 and Round 17.
Click to expand...

That's an amazing find Mianfei, and what's even more remarkable is that both of these happened in significant seasons for South and Sturt. In 1979, the South Adelaide Panthers were playing in their first Grand Final since winning the 1964 premiership, but this time Port Adelaide Magpies were too strong for South, and the 1979 runner-up trophy is the last time to date South Adelaide has made the Grand Final. Sturt went close to a perfect season in 1978, one narrow loss early in the year, 22-1 heading into the Grand Final and a 5 goal lead over Norwood with time on approaching in the final term, only to fall apart and see the Redlegs grab the premiership by a point with seconds to spare. So demoralized were the Double Blues that they slumped to second last in 1979.

In 1988, South Adelaide had one of the poorest seasons on record -a 1-21 record, and an astonishing 7 games and over 12 percent behind second last West Torrens. Sturt, after a few poor seasons in the mid-1980s, improved to make the finals in 1988 and would finish 5th. The next year, South Adelaide improved to 9th with 6-16, and Sturt would tumble down the ladder to take the Panthers' place at the bottom of the ladder in 1989. It would mark the first of 8 straight wooden spoons for the Double Blues from 1989-1996 inclusive.
 
emuboy said:
An accurate Geelong blew Footscray away with a 9.3-57 to 2.2-14 opening term at the Western Oval in Round 3 1991, but for the rest of the day the Cats sprayed the football all over the ground, kicking a very inaccurate 6.24-60 over the final three quarters. The Bulldogs themselves scored 8.6-54 for the final three terms, and Geelong won 15.27-117 to 10.8-68.
Click to expand...
Geelong would experience a reverse turnaround the following week in the first AFL match at the Gabba. They would be on 5.16 (46) at one point, but then blew the Bears away by going from 12.20 (92) to 21.20 (146) in almost even time. However, if we combine the last half of Round 3 and the first of Round 4, Geelong kicked a total of 13.34 (112)! That may have been beaten by Melbourne’s 12.34 (106) back in 1940, but Geelong were playing in very warm and dry conditions with little wind.

It has also struck me that from the start of 1991 Geelong took just 17 quarters to kick 100 behinds.

Has a team ever scored 100 behinds in fewer quarters than that?
emuboy said:
In a VFL game last weekend, the Northern Bullants scored an abysmal 0.4-4 against Footscray, which were untroubled to kick 24.17-161 themselves and win at Preston by 157 points.

The Bullants quarter by quarter scores were 0.0, 0.1, 0.4 and 0.4-4, and while other VFL teams have been held goal-less in recent years, this was the lowest VFL/VFA score of any team since 1919. Strangely, 0.4-4 is the only score below 200 (except for no score) which has never come up in the AFL.
Click to expand...
0.4 looked like coming up as recently as 1992 at a flooded Western Oval. In the penultimate round West Coast were on that score with about six minutes to go and had had their speedy team completely paralysed trying to run around a waterlogged surface.

The Eagles were accustomed to similar (if warmer) weather but on the free-draining sandy Perth soils where speedy players can keep their speed and indeed pace becomes essential because the ball has little grip. However, on the water-holding soil of Melbourne the Eagles seemed to be falling over trying to run fast and it is exceptionally interesting to watch their pace totally nullified. After trying four men at full-forward in place of late withdrawal Sumich, West Coast eventually got their first goal through Mitchell White, then another through Chris Lewis two minutes later, and a third through Scott Watters on the siren. This remains the last time an AFL team has flirted with a goalless match — indeed the last time a team has been goalless at three-quarter time — and although the Eagles won the 1992 premiership, they kicked the two lowest scores of the season and, amazingly, no other team got within thirteen points of those two scores. I’ve always thought it a pity that this game (and even more the St. Kilda game five weeks previously) was never shown on 7TWO’s Flashback Classics back in the 2000s.

With Sumich back, the Eagles kicked seven goals in the first quarter the following Sunday against Carlton in weather wetter than at the Western Oval, but on familiar soils.
Todman said:
22 June 1935 Tatong and Thoona FA

Benalla All Blacks 3.10, 3.13, 4.18, 4.24- 48
Glenrowan 0.4, 3.14, 3.15, 4.23- 47
Click to expand...
That is amazingly inaccurate scoring — 8.47 (95)!

The weather that day must have been very wet, and it must have been almost impossible to kick accurately. It certainly was wet in Melbourne: at the Western Oval that same afternoon Melbourne kicked 4.15 (39) to Footscray’s 5.4 (34), the lowest score by a team winning with fewer goals since 1928 and the Demons’ lowest winning score since before 1919.
 
Last edited:
During 1989 in the South Australian Amateur Football League, on June 17 Greek-Camden defeated Adelaide University 11.17 (83) to 12.6 (78). The following round on June 24 Greek-Camden again scored 83 (this time 12.11) and their opponent again scored 78, this time being Riverside, who kicked 10.18.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

SUNS
Women’s football highest score and margin
Replies
2
Views
537
SUNS
SUNS

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top