2 replies to this topic

[Caveman]

I was driving today to the shops and on the radio was listening to the Port Melbourne game on- (ha ha Port v Melbourne, or Port Adelaide v Melbourne)

Anyway Tim Lane mentions how Brett Ebert must be the only footballer that has ONLY four letters in his name. I first thought 'what' ...... then (light bulb appears)..... and it finally dawned on me what Tim Lane actually meant.

Brett Ebert's given name and surname combined- comprise just 4 of the 26 letters in the alphabet- those being B,E R, T

Good find there with that one Tim!

[Lisbon]

Which proves that you don't need a lot of letters to be good.
Port Melbourne were premiers, weren't they? How do you feel about them? I understand that they're a proud old club that could have made the VFL way back when, and were certainly better than St Kilda, Hawthorn or University (but not Footscray!) when those teams were chosen instead of them.

[Caveman]

There is a school of thought that Port Melbourne may have got the nod for the breakaway competition instead of St Kilda back in 1896-1897.

Although this is an angle that is not looked at by many about St Kilda. Whether they choose not to deliberately or just don't consider it.

Richmond have played in 7 Grand Finals in the last 50 years, St Kilda have played in 6 Grand Finals (you could argue 7 if you want to include both from 2010)

Here below are the colour coded breakdowns. Winning a Grand Final is in blue, Losing it is in pink, drawing it has the first two digits in green and what happened in the replay explains whether that team won or lost the replay. So 1977 and 2010 are different for North Melbourne and St Kilda


Richmond

1967, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974,1980, 1982

St Kilda

1965, 1966, 1971, 1997, 2009, 2010


now I am going to throw in Melbourne and North Melbourne's


Melbourne

1964,1988, 2000

North Melbourne

1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999


So the point is that St Kilda's appearance in Grand Finals is favourably comparable with most of the other Victorian teams in the space of 50 years. Richmond won 5 of their 7, St Kilda have won one of their 6.

Here is the listing for the current 10 Victorian clubs and how often they have played in Grand Finals from the 1961 Grand Final onwards

Carlton

1962 ,1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1995, 1999

Collingwood

1964, 1966, 1970, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981,1990, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2011


Essendon

1962, 1965, 1968, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1990, 1993, 2000, 2001

Geelong

1963, 1967,1989, 1992, 1994, 1995, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011

Hawthorn

1961,1963, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987,1988, 1989, 1991, 2008

Melbourne

1964,1988, 2000

North Melbourne

1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999

Richmond

1967, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974,1980, 1982

St Kilda

1965, 1966, 1971, 1997, 2009, 2010

Western

1961 (as Footscray)

So although St Kilda have not played in as many Grand Finals as the Hawthorns and Carltons, their record is not massively behind them as the Western Bulldogs is.

Hawthorn have played in 14 Grand Finals in 50 years,
Carlton have played in 14 Grand Finals in 50 years
Collingwood have played in 12 Grand Finals in 50 years (as well as a Grand Final replay in 1977 & 2010)
Geelong have played in 10 Grand Finals in 50 years
Essendon have played in 10 Grand Finals in 50 years
North Melbourne have played in 8 Grand Finals in 50 years (as well as a Grand Final replay in 1977)
Richmond have played in 7 Grand Finals in 50 years
St Kilda have played in 6 Grand Finals in 50 years (as well as a Grand Final replay in 2010)
Melbourne have played in 4 Grand Finals in 50 years
Western have played in 1 Grand Final in 50 years (as Footscray of course).

Next year this 50 year analysis will change from 1 to none for Western unless we play in the 2012 Grand Final.

St Kilda have won 1, drawn one (for the end loss of it 7 days later) and lost the other 5 on top of that drawn replay. They could quite easily have won most of them- especially 1971 where a 26 point lead late in the 3rd quarter was hauled in.

Richmond won 5 of their 7 Grand Finals- the 1967 and 1969 Grand Finals were still in the balance until late in the last quarter (especially 1967) The 1973 and 1974 Grand Finals were conclusively safe for them at 3/4 time although 1980 pretty much was.

Carlton could have lost in 1968,1970, 1979, 1981 and 1982 at the half way mark of the last quarter of all of those Grand Finals. 1995 was the only one where at 3/4 time they were home and hosed as Richmond weren't totally out of it in 1972 at 3/4 time, or Hawthorn in 1987

So it is all about winning Grand Finals- but they have made a reasonable number- unlike us.