I love watching matches in the final round of a footy competition, because the intensity of the play and the desperation to make the season count makes conditions perfect to create some great statistics. I’m assuming that’s what everyone else loves too, right? Right? Um… here are the stats that I found interesting in Round 14 of the 2021 Bond University QAFLW.
Wilston Grange 7.11 (53) d Coolangatta Tweed 4.4 (28) at Eximm Oval
W-Grange: Kristen Tyquin 3, Abby Hewett, Daisy Carter, Rheanne Lugg, Brooke Sheridan
Coolangatta: Aishlin Killeen, Sophie Ure, Brittany Perry, Kitara Whap-Farrar
Wilston Grange v Coolangatta Tweed is the most even rivalry among current QAFLW teams. The Gorillas’ victory last Saturday meant that not only did the Gorillas and Bluebirds finish level on points this year, but their head-to-head record now reads 10 wins apiece plus a draw. And yes, they happen to be at the bottom of the table in 2021 but remember that these are also the only two clubs not named Coorparoo or Yeronga to have won a premiership in the last decade.
Coolangatta’s 150th goal against Wilston Grange was scored by ruck Sophie Ure when she suddenly found herself all alone at full-forward, produced the most perfectly directed miskicked dribble, and then broke into a fit of giggles. Ure has never denied that the reason she moved from UQ to Coolangatta was to score the 150th goal for Coolangatta against Grange.
Before Saturday, Grange centre half-forward Kristen Tyquin had scored three career goals against Coolangatta. On Saturday, she scored three more (including this gem that the camera nearly missed). So kids, how many goals against Coolangatta does Kristen have altogether? Did you say six? Well done; you should write a footy stats blog.
I’ve been writing a bit about how Wilston Grange in 2021 compares with the last placed teams from the 10 previous QAFLW seasons and will churn out some more after the season finishes, but in short, they’ve got the equal second best attacking record, the third best defensive record and the second best percentage of all bottom-of-the-table sides on record. Told ya this comp was good.
Wilston Grange has now played 117 QAFLW matches and conceded a total of 5,999 points. I am unreliably informed that the lure of scoring the 6000th point against the Gorillas has proven irresistible to several clubs and that the bidding war to play Wilston Grange in Round 1 of 2022 could fund Aussie Rules in Queensland for several years.
University of Queensland 14.12 (96) d Bond University 5.1 (31) at Bond University Oval
UQ: Greta Bodey 5, Dakota Davidson 4, Rachael Vetter 2, Luka Yoshida-Martin, Marnie McGorm, Grace Brennan
Bond Uni: Kalinda Howarth 3, Shannon Danckert, Molly Ritson
To be replayed on NITV on Sunday 20 June at 10am
Also available on YouTube
I was commentating on this game and have only just emerged from shock. University of Queensland, the Red Lionesses, the team that has lost more matches than any other team in recorded QAFLW history (75), travelled down the coast to face Bond University 13 matches into a winning streak that began back in February… and won by 65 points. I. Can’t. Even.
UQ’s score of 14.12-96 is not merely their highest total against Bond, it’s the second highest by anyone against Bond. It is UQ’s equal 8th highest score ever but the seven above them were all against the team on the bottom of the table at the time of the match. The other match in which they scored 96 was last week against Aspley. The margin of 65 is UQ’s greatest over Bond and the fifth greatest by any team against Bond. The six goals and six behinds UQ kicked in the second quarter was the second highest scoring quarter in the QAFLW this year. The combined score of their last three matches is 44.32-296 to 8.9-57.
The Red Lionesses’ tally of 114 goals is the 19th most in a home-and-away season. Of the 18 teams above them, 7 went on to win the premiership and another 7 played in the Grand Final. Incidentally, the team to score the most goals in a year without making the finals was UQ two years ago when their 106 goals was only good enough for fifth.
After seeing her Brisbane Lions teammate Jess Wuetschner score four goals in six minutes and ten seconds last week, UQ forward Dakota Davidson wisely decided to take her time. Her four goals took 8 minutes and 48 seconds of playing time (either side of half-time) from when she marked in the right forward pocket to set up her first goal until the goal umpire signalled her fourth. That first goal was Davidson’s 50th in the QAFLW, a milestone also reached by Marnie McGorm six minutes earlier.
Greta Bodey’s five goals are the most by anyone in a Bond-UQ match and the third most by anyone against Bond Uni. Her second goal was UQ’s 700th in the QAFLW, an occasion Bodey marked by dribbling her shot under one defender and over the next.
And yet, there is still plenty to celebrate about the Bull Sharks. For starters, 100 goals in 2021, brought up when a neat 1-2 move to beat 3 defenders from Bond’s numbers 4 and 5 (Wallis Randell and Molly Ritson) resulted in Ritson scoring 6 points. Did you like the way I worked all the numbers in there? Yeah, I thought it was pretty clever myself.
Bond finds ways to score goals even when they’re having an off-day. In fact, the Bull Sharks scored more points last Saturday than they did when they beat UQ back in April. Bond has lost three matches in the last two years but kicked five goals each time.
Interestingly, those three losses have all been at home, so I looked for the last time Bond Uni lost an away match. Round 7, 2019. Their 14 away wins since then appears to be a QAFLW record with the win over Coolangatta in April being the record-setting match.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been focussing on whether Bond would break Yeronga’s record of 13 wins from the start of a season. Now that they’ve equalled that, it is definitely time to celebrate what ended up being the fourth longest winning streak in QAFLW records and led to Bond Uni winning a record three consecutive minor premierships.
These are amazing achievements in their own right. So I brought cake.
Photo courtesy of I Am Baker (https://iambaker.net/crescent-moon-cake/)
Maroochydore 5.7 (37) d Aspley 0.9 (9) at Graham Road
Maroochydore: Jazmin Tweddle-O’Donnell 2, Jessee Sills 2, Emma Day
Aspley: (behinds) Sophie Conway 4, Brooke Jarrott, Kadie Fletcher; rushed 3
What a majestically weird scoreline this is. Firstly, it was the only match of the round not won by the team behind at quarter-time. Secondly, Maroochydore’s score consists entirely of prime numbers while Aspley’s contains the Hindu-Arabic numerals of least and greatest value. Exciting, right? Thirdly, how did Aspley keep missing? I’ve watched the match; some of those misses defied the laws of physics.
With that many behinds and no goals, I had to find out if this was the most behinds scored by a team that finished a match without a goal. True to form, Aspley just missed.
I also thought that 37 might be close to the lowest score for a team that managed not to concede a goal (it is also Maroochydore’s lowest score against the Hornets), so I looked that up too. Turns out it’s the third lowest score by a team that kept its opponents goalless, but just look at who that is up the top.
Since 2011 Round 1, most QAFLW matches in which one team has failed to score a goal were mismatches. Of the 72 times that a team has not scored a goal, 56 of the winners scored 10 goals or more with 33 of them scoring 100 points or more. It’s not that hard to keep a team goalless when you’re simply better footballers than they are. But the games on this list were ones that conceivably could have been lost. Twice this season, Maroochydore has faced teams that, while in the bottom half of the table, were a challenge to overcome – and they’ve won those matches without conceding a goal. I think Maroochydore can take a bit of pride in being first and third in this stat.
Following this match, Aspley’s three highest scores against Maroochydore are 27, 18 and 9, all multiples of 9. Maroochydore’s highest score against Aspley is 99 which they’ve made twice. Aspley has twice scored zero which, mathematically, is a multiple of 9. The number 9 is considered lucky in Norway, whose name in English comprises the last syllables of Aspley players Eloise O’Con-NOR and Sophie Con-WAY. All this must mean something, so while I work it out, here’s a website that teaches you how to make a tin foil hat.
Coorparoo 10.10 (70) d Yeronga South Brisbane 7.2 (44) at Leyshon Park
Coorparoo: Josii Hargreaves 2, Tori Groves-Little 2, Jess Wuetschner 2, Jade Ellenger, Emma Pittman, Ayla Fraser, Jenae Govan
Yeronga: Lexi Edwards 2, Emmii-Lee Zanker Close, Adrienne Keeffe, Gabby Collingwood, Madison Satyasiv, Emily Bates
Coorparoo’s victory, their first in five matches against their oldest rivals, means that not only does Yeronga miss the finals for only the second time (2018) in their 11 seasons in the QAFLW, but for the first time ever, neither Grand Finalist has qualified for the following year’s finals series. This includes the pre-records era because 2011 was the first Grand Final not to feature either of the previous year’s combatants.
Yeronga still leads Coorparoo in head-to-head matches 16 wins to 15 with both teams having the advantage at the other’s home ground: Coorparoo leads 8 wins to 7 at Leyshon Park; Yeronga 7 to 6 at Giffin Park. Coorparoo stretched its lead in the overall points aggregate from 9 to 35, or to put that another way, from 0.3 points per match to 1.13 points per match. That’s dominance with a lower case ‘d’. In a tiny font. Possibly in Wingdings.
Both sides came into this match with 46 losses in all QAFLW matches. Coorparoo not only helped Yeronga to take the lead in that little battle, but also recorded their 96th QAFLW win. A successful run to this year’s premiership would leave them on 99 at season’s end while an unsuccessful one would still leave them confident of racking up win no. 100 early in 2022.
Coorparoo joined Bond University as teams to win three matches after trailing at half-time this year. The first two matches (Rounds 4 and 5) resulted in one-point wins; this one was signed and sent with a five-goal final quarter, making them the third team to score 5 goals in a fourth quarter this year.
Individually, Emily Bates scored her 10th goal against Coorparoo after scoring her first in 2013, while Emma Pittman scored her first goal against Yeronga since the 2015 Preliminary Final. Jess Wuetschner’s two goals take her to 28 goals in Coorparoo-Yeronga matches, 6 ahead of second place (Jade Ransfield of Yeronga) and twice as many as the next best current player. That’s her teammate Jenae Govan whose 14th goal brings her level with Mackenzie Arnold, the current West Ham and Matildas goalkeeper. Arnold kicked 49 goals for Coorparoo in 2015 before returning to football and spending the 2018 season playing with Arna-Bjørnar in Norway…
(… um… I think I’m being followed by Norwegians… how’s that tin foil hat coming along?)
For the players, the finals series of the 2021 Bond University QAFLW means a chance to fulfil their ambitions and prove that they can produce their skills in the most pressurised circumstances. For a stats blogger, it means I have a whole new set of finals matches statistics with which to play. I’m guessing this is what Christmas Day feels like for other people. Your AFL Record-style stats sheet is here with a few things you can look for in this Saturday’s matches mentioned below. Both matches will be played on Saturday 19 June 2021.
Elimination Final: Maroochydore v Coorparoo at Fishermans Road, 2pm
Played 12: Coorparoo 8 wins; Maroochydore 4 wins
To be streamed on QAFLW Live
Replayed on NITV on Sunday 27 June at 10am
Maroochydore has finished third on the ladder for the third year in a row. This is how the Bond University QAFLW table works these days: Bond finishes first, Maroochydore finishes third, and the other six teams fill in the gaps around them.
Coorparoo has won two-thirds of the matches between these two, but since 2019, the record is 4-3 to Maroochydore. At Fishermans Road, Maroochydore leads 3-1. However, Coorparoo’s “1” was this same semi-final in 2019 when Jesse Wardlaw went into turbo mode and Coorparoo turned a 10-point half-time deficit into a 53-point victory. Given that the Kings did the same to Yeronga and Bond Uni over the following two weeks to claim the flag, the Roos shouldn’t feel overly bad.
None of the top three finishers this year have won a QAFLW Premiership; indeed, they’ve only won one finals match each. The one remaining team with finals pedigree is the one that snuck into fourth. Only three clubs have ever beaten Coorparoo in a finals match – none of them qualified this year (Coolangatta, Wilston Grange, Yeronga). Furthermore, their largest ever losing margin in a finals match is just 18.
The leading goalscorers list for Maroocharoo matches has a three-way tie at the top between Shannon Campbell (Maroochydore), Jenae Govan and Jess Wuetschner (Coorparoo), all of whom are expected to play this Saturday but none of whom are expected to spend the whole game in the forwards… unless they read this blog and start sending subtle messages to Messrs Moody and Hewitt, like chaining themselves to a goalpost.
Qualifying Final: Bond University v University of Queensland at Bond University Oval, 3pm
Played 8: Bond Uni 6 wins; UQ 2 wins
This will be the fifth time that two teams who met in the final round of the regular season will meet again in the first week of the finals. UQ will be pleased to know that, on each occasion, the same team has won both matches. Bond Uni will be pleased to know that they have an opportunity to create yet another piece of history this year.
As well as finishing in their highest ever ladder position, UQ now has a total of 4991 points in the QAFLW. Players who would like to score the Red Lionesses’ 5000th point, please form an orderly queue. They also have a total of 38 goals against Bond Uni. Normally, I wouldn’t mention that a team with 38 goals could score its 50th this week but I think you’ll agree it’s good to be prepared in this case.
For that matter, Bond has 58 goals against UQ. Again, I wouldn’t normally suggest that a team on 58 goals against one opponent might score its 100th against them this week, but I have an inkling that Bond might be a little fired up on Saturday. Just a hunch.
Daniel Viles is a commentator in the QAFLW. He feels his form has been a bit patchy this season but is nonetheless hopeful of being selected for the Grand Final on July 4. He also really enjoyed the woodfire pizza he had after the Bond v UQ game last Saturday.
The video links in this article are designed to begin at the relevant moment of the match. References to the QAFLW include all previous names for the competition from 2001. Records on SportsTG begin from 2011 although there seems to be some stuff from 2010 hidden behind broken links.
Trakai Island Castle Blog 