Useless Stats

Useless Stats Round 11: Quick goals, Dockers’ unwanted 32-year record and Castagna numerology

Thanks to our friends at Useless AFL Stats, we have you covered on all the latest quirky figures of footy👇

Published by
Aaron Delaporte

We’re back for Round 11 of Zero Hanger’s weekly ‘five useless stats’ series.

Every week Aaron Delaporte from Useless AFL Stats will take a look at the most useless statistics from the weekend, the ones you never knew you needed to know until now.

Courtesy of some very close matches Round 11 again provided us with another five weird yet captivating and ultimately Useless Stats.

Quick goals

Round 11 produced the quickest start for goals in an AFL round since the 18-team competition was introduced, beginning with James Harmes' opener on Friday night which took just 21 seconds to set the Dees on their way against the Bulldogs.

The longest wait for any of the nine games was just 3 minutes 18 seconds when Luke Dahlhaus kicked a major for Geelong in the win over Collingwood.

The combined nine-game total was just 16 mins 24 secs at an average of 1min 49.3 seconds per game.

In contrasting fashion, West Coast took 29mins 35 seconds to kick the opening goal against Hawthorn a few weeks ago which is the slowest in AFL history.

Quick goals: Part Two

Jake Waterman, who was the medical sub for West Coast, recorded a goal just 22 seconds after coming onto the ground to set a new medical sub record for fastest goal.

Izak Rankine kicked three goals in just 10 minutes and 19 seconds for Gold Coast, however this was a fair bit off the record held by Kent Kingsley - who kicked three snags for Geelong in Round 9, 2004 in 6mins 17 seconds.

Freo’s poor kicking

Once again Fremantle failed to kick more majors than behinds, making it the tenth time in eleven games this year that has happened.

They have now kicked 117 goals and 146 behinds for the season. To put that into context, they have had just two less scoring shots than ladder-leaders Melbourne.

The conversion rate of 44% is so bad that it has been 32 years since a team was that bad at kicking for goal and that was Richmond who took the wooden spoon in 1989.

The team at Useless AFL Stats recreated the AFL ladder swapping goals for behinds and behinds for goals for each match this season - the new ladder would see Fremantle climb to 4th spot and their percentage improve from 90.2% to 122.6% and of course Nat Fyfe would be the most accurate shot for goal in the competition.

Source: Useless AFL Stats

Fixturing in COVID

Even though the Gold Coast v Hawthorn game was moved from TIO Stadium in the Northern Territory to the SCG, it still set a new record for consecutive different venues for two AFL sides.

The Suns and Hawks have played their last six games at Carrara, the MCG, York Park, Docklands, Adelaide Oval and the SCG.

There have been a number of teams record five different venues in recent times, with West Coast and Carlton set to join the list if that game is moved to the SCG as anticipated. The pair will have gone from Subiaco to the MCG to Docklands to Perth Stadium and now the SCG.

Round 11 numerology

In Richmond’s win over Adelaide, Jason Castagna in jumper 11 kicked a point with 11 seconds to go, for Richmond to finish on 111 in round 11.

PERTH, AUSTRALIA - MAY 12: Jason Castagna of the Tigers celebrates a goal during the round eight AFL match between the Fremantle Dockers and the Richmond Tigers at Optus Stadium on May 12, 2019 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Published by
Aaron Delaporte