GOTE 2020 Progress Report (23 May 2021)

Preludes to Nothing  

The look on Hurley's face in 2020 says it all

What is a GOTE?

Introduction   GOTE 2019   GOTE 2020   GOTE 2021

A GOTE ("Greatest of the Era") is the Greatest VFL/AFL Team in an era that starts in Round 1 in any given year, and then keeps going for a while. Until, that is, every team has played every other team twice. This way, we get to see who “really” should have made the finals.

For more information, see our Introduction, or even better, GOTE 2019. But for now, suffice it to say that even before a regular home and away season commences, we know it is going to fail to supply us with enough games for a full and proper “GOTE” home and away season.

So, where are we going to find those extra games? Well, from the regular season finals series, for starters. We’ll bring those back into our GOTE home and away series. And then, we’ll grab any additional games we need on top of that from the year following and, if needs be, from the year following even that.

GOTE 2020 Progress Report for 23 May 2021

This below illustrates, we think, the Way of the GOTE. If 2020 had gone a bit longer than COVID had allowed, we might have seen Bulldogs and Melbourne start to climb the ladder and Collingwood and St Kilda start to slide? 

Team	Played	Points	For	Against	%
Port Adelaide	28	84	2046	1587	128.92%
Fitzroy / Brisbane	27	84	2033	1650	123.21%
Richmond	27	78	1863	1548	120.35%
Geelong	29	76	2187	1646	132.87%
Footscray / Bulldogs	27	72	2056	1706	120.52%
Melbourne	27	72	1966	1642	119.73%
West Coast	27	68	1988	1781	111.62%
St Kilda	27	60	1881	1809	103.98%
Greater Western Sydney	27	52	1824	1869	97.59%
Collingwood	28	50	1698	1768	96.04%
Fremantle	27	48	1645	1749	94.05%
Carlton	27	44	1882	1982	94.95%
Sth Melb / Sydney	27	44	1769	1865	94.85%
Essendon	27	42	1892	2094	90.35%
Gold Coast	27	34	1693	1897	89.25%
Hawthorn	27	28	1708	2130	80.19%
Adelaide	27	28	1641	2228	73.65%
North Melbourne	27	16	1469	2290	64.15%

It's always all right for some though

Sporty Monk, 26 April 2021

GOTE 2019 Progress Report (26 April 2021)

Preludes to Nothing

Flyin’ Ryan

What is a GOTE?

Introduction   GOTE 2019   GOTE 2020   GOTE 2021

A GOTE (“Greatest of the Era”) is a measure of the Greatest VFL/AFL Team in any given year. Well, in any given “era”, as we shall see. But where a “GOTE Season” differs from a regular AFL season is that it recognises that the AFL has abandoned all pretext of the idea that a Home and Away Season should fair. And not only because it’s no longer possible for teams to play each other twice, but also because of fixturing for profit.

So, what we do here at The Way of the GOTE is to keep a Home and Away Season going even after the AFL declares it finished. To illustrate how this plays out, note that by the end of the regular 2019 Home and Away Season, Brisbane and Geelong had played each other only once. But we needed them to play TWICE before “we” would play “our” finals series. So, we kept an eye on the regular 2019 Finals Series, to see if Brisbane and Geelong would meet there and supply us with our all-important second game in “GOTE 2019”, to use our terminology. But that game never came. So, we watched some cricket and waited for 2020 to roll around. And finally, it happened. Brisbane and Geelong met each other in Round 6, 2020. 

Eventually, sometime during the regular 2020 season, it came to pass that every team had played each other twice since the start of 2019, and we were finally ready to play our GOTE 2019 Finals Series.

And as luck would have it, we saw that Brisbane and Geelong needed to play each other in the first week of “our” finals series. See below.

Elimination Final 1		Qualifying Final 1
Port Adelaide		Richmond
Greater Western Sydney		Collingwood
Elimination Final 2		Qualifying Final 2
West Coast		Fitzroy / Brisbane
Footscray / Bulldogs		Geelong

So, once again we had to wait. (As Mick Malthouse says: the ox is slow, but the GOTE is patient.) And finally, once again, it happened. Brisbane and Geelong next met each other in the one of the real-time preliminary finals for 2020. And that game became Qualifying Final 2 in the GOTE 2019 Finals Series, with Geelong the winner.

And that … is what is … The Way of the GOTE. For more information, see our Introduction.

GOTE 2019 Progress Report for 26 April 2021

The games for the GOTE 2019 Home and Away Series (see below) come from real-time 2019 but also from 2020, given every team must play every other team twice.

GOTE 2019 Home and Away Series	Played	Points	For	Against	%
Richmond	34	104	2743	2273	120.68%
Fitzroy / Brisbane	34	100	2820	2382	118.39%
Geelong	34	96	2888	2125	135.91%
Collingwood	34	92	2583	2144	120.48%
Port Adelaide	34	84	2592	2308	112.31%
West Coast	34	84	2649	2456	107.86%
Footscray / Bulldogs	34	80	2750	2523	109.00%
Greater Western Sydney	34	76	2728	2445	111.57%
St Kilda	34	64	2453	2643	92.81%
Fremantle	34	60	2192	2300	95.30%
Essendon	34	58	2329	2735	85.16%
Hawthorn	34	56	2453	2408	101.87%
Adelaide	34	52	2412	2642	91.29%
North Melbourne	34	52	2424	2693	90.01%
Melbourne	34	48	2331	2664	87.50%
Sth Melb / Sydney	34	44	2275	2547	89.32%
Carlton	34	44	2270	2675	84.86%
Gold Coast	34	30	2086	3015	69.19%

The GOTE 2019 Home and Away Series is complete (the 18 teams have played each other twice each for a total of 17 games). So, we can get started on the GOTE 2019 Finals Series. And for that, we are waiting for two games later in the current year in real time. (Yes, we are well into 2021 and “still” we haven’t had enough games played in real time … COVID wouldn’t be helping.) And those two games are:

• Richmond v. Collingwood, scheduled for Round 17 in the regular 2021 season; and
   
• Port v. GWS, scheduled for Round 20 in the regular 2021 season.

See below.

Elimination Final 1		Qualifying Final 1
Port Adelaide		Richmond	36
Greater Western Sydney		Collingwood	36
Elimination Final 2		Qualifying Final 2
West Coast	93	Fitzroy / Brisbane	42
Footscray / Bulldogs	100	Geelong	82

Some key things to note:

• West Coast has been eliminated for GOTE 2019, the first team in the GOTE 2019 Eight to bow out.
   
• Bulldogs will be playing Brisbane in GOTE Semi Final 2.
   
• Geelong is through to GOTE Preliminary Final 2.

Sporty Monk, 26 April 2021