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. And then, who "really" should have won the flag. 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 2021 Progress Report for 6 June 2021
The logic and maths of the idea of the GOTE is such that at 6 Jun 2021 (at 3:00 PM, as I type), the GOTE 2021 Ladder is identical to the AFL Ladder in real-time 2021. So, let’s just talk about the future in The Way of the GOTE. First, just a reminder that when we play finals here at The Way, we play them the same way the AFL plays them. Which is as follows.
And next, let’s note that whichever teams win the GOTE Grand Finals for 2019, 2020 and 2021, all of which are currently GOTE seasons not yet finished, those teams will add to their GOTE Flag Tallies for 1897 to 2018 as shown below.
Team | GOTE Flags | Effective Flags* | Doubly Effective Flags* |
Greater Western Sydney | 1 | 2 | 19 |
West Coast | 4 | 5 | 15 |
Essendon | 17 | 17 | 12 |
Geelong | 14 | 15 | 11 |
Hawthorn | 11 | 12 | 11 |
Carlton | 16 | 13 | 9 |
Collingwood | 14 | 13 | 9 |
Richmond | 13 | 12 | 9 |
Melbourne | 10 | 10 | 7 |
North Melbourne | 6 | 7 | 7 |
Fitzroy / Brisbane | 9 | 8 | 6 |
Sth Melb / Sydney | 4 | 5 | 3 |
St Kilda | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Footscray / Bulldogs | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Adelaide | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Fremantle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Gold Coast | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Port Adelaide | 0 | 0 | 0 |
*For information on what we mean by Effective Flags and Doubly Effective Flags, see our Introduction.
And finally, here below is how each team is tracking for the GOTE 2019, GOTE 2020 and GOTE 2021 flags as at the time of typing (6 June 2021 at 3:00 PM).
With the two most-in-form teams at present here in 2021, which matters for each of those GOTE Flags, as we continue to wait for new games to feed into each of those GOTE seasons, being Melbourne and Bulldogs.
Sporty Monk, 6 Jun 2021
