If the Geelong Cats win at Kardinia Park this weekend, not only will they extend their long streak of winning games at home, they will also be the only AFL/VFL team to win 10 games in a row on 14 separate occasions.
Carlton are equal with Geelong at the moment, having won 10 in a row 13 different times.
Collingwood has done it nine times and Melbourne and Essendon have achieved it seven times.
It will be the fifth time this century for Geelong to achieve this – 15 games in a row in 2007, 12 in 2008, 15 also in 2008 and 13 in 2009.
Chris Scott could also equal South Melbourne coach Johnny Leonard in winning his first 10 games as a coach.
Geelong have proven many doubters wrong this year. All we were hearing pre-season was how they would slide down the ladder with their aging team, departure of preimership coach Mark Thompson and one of the best players in the league, Gary Ablett.
Scott admits himself that the ageing list is something they’re aware of. Geelong this year got new fitness staff who have obviously been doing a good job. Geelong are yet to lose either a third of fourth quarter this year, and many of the older players are the fittest they’ve been in a while.
Another factor is the injection of youth to the side, with debutants in Allen Christensen, Josh Cowan and Nathan Vardy, and a couple of players who had only played a couple of games before this year like Mitch Duncan, Taylor Hunt and Daniel Menzel.
Could Geelong be on track to break a few more records?
amazonfan
Roar Guru
Probably. It just struck me as weird.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
http://stats.rleague.com/afl/seas/2011sr.html#tb
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Mid way through 3rd quarter, already out to a 10 goal lead - game over.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Half way through 2nd quarter, cats up by 4 goals, looking comfortable.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Another interesting fact. Geelong and Collingwood, the current top two, are the only two teams who control their own reserves teams.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Although the rise of 10 or 11 spots can probably be matched since we went to 16 teams in 1995 (just speculating, don't know for sure, am to lazy to check)
The Cattery
Roar Guru
good call. I wonder if that first lot of 12 includes a few games from the previous year?
amazonfan
Roar Guru
"12 in 2008, 15 also in 2008" How is that possible? They only played 25 games in 2008.
nick Bencorelli
Guest
go geelong, go chloe, go obscure records!
brendan
Guest
Nathan ,Collingwood drew the 1977 gf and lost the replay the year after winning the wooden spoon.
Nathan
Guest
Would be interested in knowing what the record for highest placement the season after getting the wooden spoon is! That'd be an interesting stat for the Eagles to know :)
Football Fan
Guest
TomC, obviously we're getting into the US trend of bizarre random statistics and records for the sake of having them! Now if only the West Coast Eagles could break the current record for consecutive games won after 3.42pm eastern standard time when the opposition wears striped socks and the ball used in the match is yellow... ;)
TomC
Guest
Something of an obscure record, isn't it?
brendan
Guest
Charlie your on the money.Geelong are not that far above every body else.They are getting the job done and need one of the key forwards to develop to win it.People underestimate how good the backline is.Scarlett is probably the best defender ever and how Taylor went so late in the draft amazes me.Steven Wells deserves the keys to the city for the job he has done in recruiting this side.
Charlie
Guest
Actually, Geelong lost the fourth quarter to Carlton. Also, before the last round I read some very interesting stats. I can't find the link now, but from what I can remember, Geelong had only been in the lead in all their matches about 57% of the time. This was compared to about 60% for Richmond and about 65% for the Western Bulldogs. Collingwood and Carlton had the highest percentages, but I cannot remember what they were. This suggests 2 things to me: that Geelong have the experience to close games out and get over the line in tight games, but also they are not as far ahead of the rest of the pack as their number of wins would initially seem.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
Technically, the R19 loss to Collingwood at the MCG last year was a home game.
mds1970
Roar Guru
There was a lot of doom and gloom predicted for the Cats, but they only lost one star player. And they've been able to cover that so well you barely notice Ablett isn't there. The list may be aging, but they still have what it takes to perform at this level. And they play an attractive brand of footy, it's good to watch when they're on their game.