Greatest almost-fightbacks

[Hawker]

The delight after a huge fightback to win is great. What about the despair of not quite making it?

I recall Glenelg being 43 points down in the last quarter at Elizabeth, I think in '74, getting to within 1 point when the siren sounded, Bays in attack at the time.

Stats won't show within-quarter deficits, but what have been big fightbacks from 3/4 time that still end up with a loss?

[spell_check]

With the margin between 1 and 6 points, here are the top bracket of such comebacks:

[FlyingHigh]

Great stuff Spelly.

Obviously the conditions ie wind would influence some of these results - the second one on the list Torrens v Port shows only one point kicked to one end all day. And same with Torrens v Sturt in 06 towards the bottom of the list.
Another interesting observation is that the two games North lost to Woodville would have been consecutive meetings in 77 and 78 between them.

[stampy]

spelly, is ther any chance of digging up the score of the glenelg v port clash at the bay in '74? port were miles in front at 3/4 time and the bays kicked something silly like 8-16 in the last quarter, ended up kicking 15-29 from memory and went down by 11 points in the finish i reckon

[Hondo]

It's interesting that in 1985 North got themselves 10 goals down to South at 3/4 time. That was the year that Don Scott quit after they lost their first 8 games or so and then Rick Davies took after and they played some useful footy after that. They had a half decent team on paper IIRC.

I recall we won our first 11 or so straight and then spluttered a bit in the second half of the year (injuries were one factor) but held on to the minor premiership. That South game being late July must have been round 16ish.

I went to a few of South's games at Adelaide Oval that year but don't recall that one.

[robranisgod]

It's interesting that in 1985 North got themselves 10 goals down to South at 3/4 time. That was the year that Don Scott quit after they lost their first 8 games or so and then Rick Davies took after and they played some useful footy after that. They had a half decent team on paper IIRC.

I recall we won our first 11 or so straight and then spluttered a bit in the second half of the year (injuries were one factor) but held on to the minor premiership. That South game being late July must have been round 16ish.

I went to a few of South's games at Adelaide Oval that year but don't recall that one.

Darel Hart had a shot for goal from about 35 metres out on the siren. He failed to make the distance, otherwise we would have drawn the game.

[JK]

It's interesting that in 1985 North got themselves 10 goals down to South at 3/4 time. That was the year that Don Scott quit after they lost their first 8 games or so and then Rick Davies took after and they played some useful footy after that. They had a half decent team on paper IIRC.

I recall we won our first 11 or so straight and then spluttered a bit in the second half of the year (injuries were one factor) but held on to the minor premiership. That South game being late July must have been round 16ish.

I went to a few of South's games at Adelaide Oval that year but don't recall that one.

I reckon Norwood broke your run that year mate rather convincingly at Prospect, and then smacked the Roosters at the Parade later in the year ... I recall as a young lad when the following season came around that North wouldn't be a team we'd have to worry much about, but you guys pretty much always rolled us over the next 3 or 4 years.

Spelly - In 1986 I reckon Glenelg jumped Norwood (and Stringer jumped Tommy Warhurst) at the Parade but Norwood came home with a wet sail, before Hall sealed the deal for the bays late in the last quarter (gifted through an abominable defensive error), any info on that game?

[gadj1976]

Those stats are interesting from a Sturt perspective in 1955. Two games in 6 weeks where we were up by 39 points and almost lost both games. I wonder what Talking Footy/On the Couch would've made of those almost losses had they been in today's environment of "analysis paralysis".

Spelly, could you detail the Sturt games in between, just for my curiosity's sake please?

Those games being between 30/4/55 and 11/6/55.

Cheers

Gadj

[spell_check]

spelly, is ther any chance of digging up the score of the glenelg v port clash at the bay in '74? port were miles in front at 3/4 time and the bays kicked something silly like 8-16 in the last quarter, ended up kicking 15-29 from memory and went down by 11 points in the finish i reckon

Round 20 1974
Port 6.5 9.5 17.9 20.10 (130)
Glenelg 3.2 5.8 7.13 15.29 (119)
Glenelg, 15984

That is the most behinds kicked in a quarter by one team - initially I thought it was 17 by Port in 1966, but I found that to be incorrect.

I reckon Norwood broke your run that year mate rather convincingly at Prospect, and then smacked the Roosters at the Parade later in the year ... I recall as a young lad when the following season came around that North wouldn't be a team we'd have to worry much about, but you guys pretty much always rolled us over the next 3 or 4 years.

Round 12 1985
Norwood 5.7 10.7 15.9 19.10 (124)
North 3.1 5.5 7.6 12.16 (88)
Prospect, 10606

Round 21 1985
Norwood 5.0 14.5 18.6 28.10 (178)
North 1.3 4.6 9.10 13.13 (91)
Norwood, 9481

Spelly - In 1986 I reckon Glenelg jumped Norwood (and Stringer jumped Tommy Warhurst) at the Parade but Norwood came home with a wet sail, before Hall sealed the deal for the bays late in the last quarter (gifted through an abominable defensive error), any info on that game?

Round 10 1986
Glenelg 4.4 9.6 13.10 15.15 (105)
Norwood 3.2 6.3 8.6 14.9 (93)
Norwood, 10561

Those stats are interesting from a Sturt perspective in 1955. Two games in 6 weeks where we were up by 39 points and almost lost both games. I wonder what Talking Footy/On the Couch would've made of those almost losses had they been in today's environment of "analysis paralysis".

Spelly, could you detail the Sturt games in between, just for my curiosity's sake please?

Those games being between 30/4/55 and 11/6/55.

Cheers

Gadj

The next three matches, Sturt won; the last quarter in all of those matches was won by Sturt. Sturt then lost in Round 6 to Norwood.

In Round 7, Sturt almost lost after leading at three quarter time, but the margin was only 16 points:

Round 7 1955
Sturt 6.3 6.4 8.9 9.11 (65)
Torrens 2.2 6.4 6.5 9.7 (61)
Thebarton, 15312

[stampy]

whilst we are one these sorts of things, hey spelly what is the highest score kicked by an sanfl side in the first quarter in which that team has then lost the match, ala port v brisbane at the gabba this year,
cheers

[spell_check]

75 points:

Round 4 1937
West 4.1 9.6 14.10 23.18 (156)
Glenelg 12.3 13.6 19.8 20.11 (131)
Glenelg, 1500