Rushed Behinds for the Win

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I’m a big fan of the Useless AFL Stats page on Facebook and their efforts to “delve into the weird, bizzare, and totally irrelevant” stats of the AFL. Needless to say, I was very excited when they announced they were starting a podcast.

In Episode 1, UAS Creator Aaron Delaporte asked about the biggest win by rushed behinds where the final margin equalled the number of rushed behinds scored by the winning team, following Port Adelaide’s win over Essendon where the Power won by four points and had four rushed behinds.

UAS stat guru Liam Crowhurst didn’t get time to answer the question during the show as they ran out of time, so I thought I would have a crack at finding an answer during the week.

Based on my research, the biggest win by rushed behinds (where the margin was equal to the number of rushed behinds a winning team scored) is nine. This occurred in the 1975 semi-final between Richmond and Carlton, where Richmond (9.17.71) defeated Carlton (9.8.62).

I sent my findings in to the UAS team, who were very happy to hear from me, joking that “at least one person listened to the show”. And I thought that was the end of that.

However, Liam came back at the start of Episode 2 with an answer. My answer was thankfully the same as his, which was very satisfying. The UAS team even gave me a shout out for getting the right answer before Liam did, which was very kind of them.

Some additional rushed behind-related stats I found during my research are listed below.

The record for the most rushed behinds in a one-point win is eight. This happened in Round 12, 2002, when West Coast (12.17.89) defeated Carlton (12.16.88). The final rushed behind occurred at the 22m 1s mark of the final quarter, but the Eagles had three scores between this and the end of the game:

  • Peter Matera goal 24m 12s
  • Adam Hunter goal 27m 5s
  • Mark Merenda behind 29m 39s
  • Quarter ends 32m 4s

And while scoring progression data is a little inconsistent on AFLTables, I think the record for most rushed behinds in a one-point win where a rushed behind was the winning team’s last score happened in Round 1, 2001, when Carlton (18.11.119) defeated Fremantle (18.10.118). Carlton scored a rushed behind at the 28m 24s mark of the final quarter (which ran for 31m 56s). Tony “Godra” Modra kicked a goal for the Dockers in the 31st minute, but it wasn’t enough and Carlton held on for the win.

The record for most rushed behinds scored to win the match and avoid the draw, regardless of the final margin, (e.g., six rushed behinds to win by five points) is Adelaide’s 9 rushed behinds in an eight-point win over Port Adelaide (9.19.73 to 10.5.65) in round 18, 2007. Definitely an interesting way to win a Showdown!

But if you only consider games where teams scored the same number of goals, there have been three occasions where seven rushed behinds have been scored to win the game by six points:

Thanks to the UAS team for the question and for the shout out. Keep up the great work!