Williamstown vs Geelong West (1983 VFA season)

1983 VFA thirds season


Williamstown

Geelong West
110.27 (687) 2.0 (12)
1 2 3 4
WIL 15.9 (99) 44.17 (281) 76.20 (476) 110.27 (687)
GW 1.0 (6) 1.0 (6) 2.0 (12) 2.0 (12)
Date23 July 1983
StadiumWilliamstown Cricket Ground

On 23 July 1983, an Australian rules football match was played between Williamstown and Geelong West at the Williamstown Cricket Ground. The match was in round 14 of the VFA thirds season, the under-18s competition of the Victorian Football Association (VFA).

The match saw the highest ever score in Australian rules football, in any league and at any grade, with Williamstown winning by 675 points.

Background

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Further information: 1983 VFA season § Association Thirds

In 1983, the VFA reduced the age eligibility of the thirds competition, changing it from an under-19 competition to an under-18 competition. Away games were also a particular problem for many clubs, as the younger-aged players generally preferred to play in local junior competitions than travel the often long distances to play an Association away game, particularly as none were old enough to hold driver's licences.[1]

No club was worse affected by the changes to the competition than Geelong West, whose travelling distances for away games exceeded those of any other club. It seldom attracted more than fifteen players to training, and forfeited two games early in the 1983 season simply through lack of players.[2]

Match summary

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Only twelve Geelong West players took the field – one fewer and it would have been forced to forfeit. Under the thirds rules at the time, there were sixteen players per team on the ground at a time. Williamstown had seventeen players on the day, including one on the bench.[3]

Williamstown's Stephen Cooke dominated the match, with 46 goals out of 54 scoring shots, along with a total of 30 marks. Cooke was later quoted as saying that the Geelong West side – who had already had four players suffer injuries in the first half – "had to be coaxed out at half time".[4]

All 17 Williamstown players scored at least one goal. Only one of them, Philip Brook, went on to play for the club's senior side.[3]

Scoreboard

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1983 VFA season
Saturday, 23 July (2:05 pm) Williamstown v Geelong West Williamstown Cricket Ground
15.9 (99)
44.17 (281)
76.20 (476)
110.27 (687) 		Q1
Q2
Q3
Final 		1.0 (6)
1.0 (6)
2.0 (12)
2.0 (12)
S. Cooke 46, P. Brook 12, G. Bunting 10, S. Lucas 10, P. Stewart 5, R. Arandez 5, D. Doria 4, M. Hobbs 4, S. Neenan 3, J. Selvidge 2, D. Temby 2, R. McLaughlin 2, R. Andres, G. Chamberlain, D. Harrison, D. Hickey, A. Teagle. Goals

Aftermath

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Williamstown's score of 687 remains the highest in Australian rules football, in any league and at any grade.[5] Geelong West had fared little better the previous week, conceding a short-lived record 88.23 (551) against Coburg.[6] Following these two losses, Geelong West withdrew its thirds team for the rest of the season.[2] Its season record at the time of withdrawal was 0–14 with a percentage of 11.7%.[7]

The VFA's two-division format for the thirds competition was abandoned in 1984, in response to this game and a general trend of increasingly heavy losses being suffered by teams with structurally weak thirds teams. Under the new format, which ran in 1984 and 1985, the thirds played as one large division, with a gradually released fixture which divided teams into performance-based groups to ensure the weakest teams didn't have to play against the strongest teams outside the early part of the year.[8][9]

Geelong West thirds won several games in 1984; but by 1985 it had returned to its previous level of futility, with an 0–19 record and percentage of 13.6% despite most of its games being played against other bottom six teams.[10] The two-division format in the thirds returned in 1986, Geelong West finishing last in division 1 with 0–18 and a percentage of only 6.1% that year.[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Fiddian, Marc (1984-04-07). "Coach calls it a day, with regrets". The Age. Melbourne. p. 39.
  2. ^ a b Toulmin, Lindsay (1983-07-27). "West withdraws its under 19 side". Geelong Advertiser. p. 22.
  3. ^ a b van Wyngaarden, Geoff. "Williamstown's monstrous world record score". Williamstown Football Club. Archived from the original on 13 August 2020.
  4. ^ Toulmin, Lindsay (1983-07-25). "'Too fast' West grabs second spot". Geelong Advertiser. p. 16.
  5. ^ Hothersall, James (2006-01-28). "The *most* – the all-embracing". Footystats. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2014-06-26.
  6. ^ Fiddian, Marc (1983-07-18). "Preston takes over". The Age. Melbourne. p. 25.
  7. ^ "Ladders", VFA Recorder, Blackburn, VIC: Hall's Sporting Publicity, p. 29, 31 July 1983
  8. ^ Martin, Peter (1983-07-27). "VFA plan to even up comp". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 71.
  9. ^ Fiddian, Marc (2004), The VFA: a history of the Victorian Football Association, 1877–1995, p. 302
  10. ^ "Ladders", VFA Recorder, Blackburn, VIC: Hall's Sporting Publicity, p. 30, 15 September 1985
  11. ^ "Ladders", VFA Recorder, Blackburn, VIC: Hall's Sporting Publicity, p. 24, 21 September 1986
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