SA Footy

This one will stretch your abilities as stats nerds:

Prior to today's magnificent effort by the Bloods, when was the last time the bottom-ranked team beat the top-ranked team?

What is the furthest into the season that the bottom-ranked team has knocked off the top? (It is theoretically impossible prior to round 3, but I imagine it would tend to happen in the first few rounds after this than the later rounds)

First to supply a satisfactory answer will be crowned king stats nerd of SAFooty for time immemorial. Or at least until I think of a better question

Not a definite answer, but Woodville beat North in Round 11 1971, 17.14 to 14.8, as 10th vs. 1st.

P.S. Ecky has a better understanding of Excel and Access than me so he probably will beat me to it.

Not a bad effort for 14 minutes after the original post. Ecky is going to have to pull out something special to win from here

Another question I was interested in was when was the last time that the lower ranked team beat the higher ranked team in every game in a round?

I got another lecture from Mum today on how I should be finishing off my PhD rather than working on all these fun footy stats things, so I had better leave it up to Spelly for now

I've found another 10th vs. 1st victory:

West 19.13 (127) beat Port 18.15 (123) in Round 17 1979 at Alberton.

West were on 4 wins 11 losses and a draw coming into this round and Port were 11 wins and 5 losses.

1979 was probably the most even season in SANFL history with minor premier Central District who lost 6 games and drew 1 out of 22.
West, who finished bottom with 7 wins and a draw - the most no. of wins by the wooden spooner.

Good work spelly.

There'a another which rates a mention: Glenelg over Eagles @ Glenelg late in 2004. Eagles were top, Glenelg had been bottom the week before but thanks to a narrow loss had gained just enough percentage to knock Norwood back into 9th spot. Very close, but no cigar....

Thanks to Spelly's data, I have calculated that there have been 19 occasions in SANFL history when the bottom team have beaten the top team.

Not sure if I should list them though as we might want to publish stats like this one day... (also don't want the media to use this stuff without acknowledging us i think...do people think this could be an issue?)

The previous time before the Port-West game this year was in Round 5, 2000 when Sturt beat Port.

There you go Pseudo - Ecky wins!

spell_check wrote:There you go Pseudo - Ecky wins!

Yeah, but he 'fessed up to using your data, so we'll call it a draw

Ecky, if you email the result to me, I promise not to leak the information to anyone, not even under physical torture...

Ecky wrote:Thanks to Spelly's data, I have calculated that there have been 19 occasions in SANFL history when the bottom team have beaten the top team.

For the feat to be a significant one, it would have to occur from around the middle of the season to the end. Anyone could end up bottom in the early rounds. For example, Norwood were bottom after round 3 in 1984 but won the flag that year.

The latest two happened in the 17th round of a season - the West/Port one as above, but Glenelg beat Sturt in 1940 as the final round of the season - round 17.

spell_check wrote:The latest two happened in the 17th round of a season - the West/Port one as above, but Glenelg beat Sturt in 1940 as the final round of the season - round 17.

I'll put my left nut on the fact Mel Brock would have polled votes in that game to win the Magarey. Spelly, Ecky for the obligatory bun can you confirm??