239

Carrara Oval, Gold Coast Australia, in the
 southeastern corner of Queensland

            1992 was the 96th season of VFL/AFL footy. For round seven, Geelong traveled to Carrara Oval just south of Brisbane for a match against the Brisbane Lions. The Cats got off to a bit of a slow start on the season, losing their first two matches to Hawthorn and Melbourne despite scoring over 100 points. Their round six win over Fitzroy saw them kick 25 goals and score 175 points in a 98-point win over the Lions.

            Brisbane began play in the (then) VFL in 1986 and was in the process of losing $10 million total during the 90-91-92 AFL seasons. Poor on-field play as well as insufficient public transportation meant the team wasn’t drawing well. Rumors of relocation and/or mergers swirled around the team. Coming into round seven, they had won once and lost three, and managed a draw against a West Coast squad that had a decent year.

            This was a bit of the backdrop against which history would be made.

Gary Ablett, Sr. kicked nine goals in the Cats' big win over Brisbane.
 He played 248 games, mostly with Geelong, and in
four Grand Finals. He was named to the AFL Team of the Century in 1996.

            The Cats got off to a fast start by kicking seven goals and leading 46-14 at quarter time. The lead would stretch to 89 points at the half, as Brisbane kicked just two behinds. The Bears would kick five goals in the third term but Geelong had eight major scores to lead 152-50 at the last change. What’s phenomenal is the Cats scored 14 goals (fourteen!) in the final quarter to lead by 163 points when Bill Brownless kicked a behind at the very end of the game for a 239-75 win over the Lions. Gary Ablett the elder kicked nine goals, Paul Brown added six, and four others kicked three apiece. John Hutton pitched in eight of Brisbane’s 11 goals on the night.

            The 239 points became a league record for most points scored in a game by a team, beating out Fitzroy’s 238 in a win over Melbourne in 1979. So Brownless’ minor tally set the record, which still stands today.

            Now before you wonder about Geelong running up the score, they lit up the scoreboard regularly in 1992. They put up 210 the following week against Adelaide and 181 the next. Their percentage for the season was an astounding 145.64, which means the Cats scored that many points for every 100 scored by their opponents. Geelong had the same regular-season record (16-6) as Footscray and Collingwood, so by virtue of having the highest percentage they took the #1 seed going into the postseason. That meant they could lose once in the playoffs and not be eliminated, a privilege earned by the top two teams during the home-and-away season.

            Geelong would need that double chance because they would lose to West Coast in the semifinals. The Cats then beat Footscray the following week in the Preliminary Final, earning a Grand Final rematch with West Coast. The Eagles earned their first premiership with a strong second half, winning by 28 points.

            It’s pretty wild that they’d win the big trophy despite drawing against a poor Brisbane side early in the season. You just never know.

            As for Carrara Oval, officials poured a boatload of cash into renovations in 2009-11 and it’s now known as Metricon Stadium, where the Gold Coast Suns play home games.

Holiday

This week is causing me to be more creative, as I'm visiting family in Texas this week.

Typically I spend the weekend and first part of the week watching the footy and sharing my thoughts later on in the week. But the wife and I flew out on Independence Day (no traffic and no lines at the airport!), so I didn't get a chance to watch the matches in their entirety.

What I wound up doing was checking out the first part of the game, a little through the middle, and then the last five minutes or so. The score bug is in the corner of the screen, so I could stop at a place where it looked good.

I recorded three games in round 14 two weeks ago (playing a little catch up here)-- I was a little bummed that I recorded only the last quarter and a half of Adelaide/North Melbourne, which the Crows won by 33 points. I got over it pretty quickly, since I still got St. Kilda/Geelong and Hawthorn/Gold Coast.

St. Kilda vs. the Geelong Cats was likely the best match of round 14, with the Saints getting a big first-half lead and then having to rally from nine down late to win by three points. Their rally got help because of Geelong's substitution patterns, as two of the guys the Cats really needed out there were waiting to re-enter after taking one last breather. However St. K kept the pressure on and Geelong couldn't get their studs back in. The Saints move to 6-7 after the big win.

I expected the Hawthorn and Gold Coast game to be a bit of a blowout, as the Hawks seemingly are rounding into premiership form, but GC made them work in a 26-point Hawthorn win. This was a home match for the Hawks, played in Launceston, Tasmania. I like the wide camera shots during the games that are played there, as they really show off the countryside in the distance. Hawthorn also wore guernseys with brown and pink vertical stripes instead of their standard brown and gold, to help raise breast cancer awareness.

The Hawks moved to the top of the AFL ladder with the win. It was also fun to see the Suns' Gary Ablett back and playing well after spending most of the last two seasons battling shoulder trouble.

A few other things...

Fremantle's winning streak stopped at three in Round 14 after a beating from a Collingwood side that really needed a win, and Richmond got well against a struggling Brisbane Lions side.

Now the trick has been to stay out of the Twitterverse, as the games I've recorded have already been played, and I saw the AFL feed on my timeline, so I have to shut my eyes or distract myself as I scroll further down as round 16's results come across. There's a two-hour time difference from when I'm at home, so I'm being extra careful.

Round 15's report is still to come.