IT TOOK 14 games, but Geelong coach Chris Scott finally tasted defeat as an AFL coach last Saturday night when Geelong lost to Essendon.

For now, Scott goes down in footy history as the rookie coach with the longest winning streak at the start of his career - and in honour of the Cats' coach becoming an amazing footy fact, here are another 10 morsels of footy history.

1. Hawthorn and Richmond have never met in an AFL/VFL final
Even though the Tigers and the Hawks have won 10 premierships apiece, the two clubs have never met in a final of any description. Making that stat even more amazing is the fact that between 1971 and 1980, Hawthorn and Richmond played in eight of the 10 Grand Finals (Hawthorn in 1971, 1975, 1976 and 1978, and Richmond in 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1980) - but never against one another.

2. University didn’t win one game in 1913, yet its full-forward topped the VFL goalkicking
By 1913 University was struggling to compete in the VFL, and within a couple of years was out of the league altogether. It managed just 123 goals for the season in 1913 yet remarkably, gun full-forward Roy Park kicked 53 goals - 43 per cent of the team’s tally in total. It was enough to make Park the league’s leading goalkicker for the season.
 
3. The Victoria Park hoodoo
A number of clubs had a terrible record at Collingwood’s home ground, Victoria Park. St. Kilda’s win in 1919 was its first and last until 1962, while Hawthorn waited until 1960 - 35 years after joining the league - to emerge with a win. It took a kick after the siren from John Peck to break the drought. North Melbourne fared little better, having to wait 25 years after joining the competition before finally saluting at the ground. At least all those clubs finally won at Victoria Park. Spare a thought for poor old University, which never tasted success there in seven tries.

4. Brisbane and Port Adelaide hard to split
When Port Adelaide joined the AFL in 1997, it found the Brisbane Lions to be a well-matched foe. Their first three encounters were decided by a total margin of two points. The Lions won the first meeting by two points, while the next two games ended in a draw.

5. South Melbourne and Geelong met in a game known as the 'Match of the Century' in 1886
In the early years of the VFA, the premier was the team adjudged to have won most games for the season. There was no such thing as a Grand Final, but in 1886 it was agreed that as Geelong and South Melbourne had not lost for the season and were yet to meet, a game between the two would be played to decide the premiership team. The cities of Melbourne and Geelong came to a standstill as 34,121 fans crowded into South’s home ground to watch the game. The official gate was said to be well short of the actual number that viewed the clash from any available vantage point. When one considers that Melbourne’s total population in 1880 was 280,000, a crowd of in excess of 35,000 to watch a sport that was barely 25 years old was an extraordinary feat. For the record, Geelong won.

6. Fanning’s swansong
Fred Fanning certainly saved his best till last. In his final game of AFL/VFL football before taking up an offer to coach in the bush, the Melbourne full-forward broke the record for most goals in a league game with 18. It was the last game of 1947 when Fanning kicked his bag, and the record still stands.

7. More than 100 in a quarter
With a quarter to go in its round 12 clash with the Saints in 1919, South Melbourne were well in control, but no-one could imagine what would happen next. Leading 12.11 to 2.6 at three-quarter time, the Bloods slammed on 17.4 to nil in the final stanza to win by 177 points. It was the first and only time in league football a side has broken the century barrier in one quarter.

8. Paging Peter Brown
The most common name in the history of league football has been Peter Brown, with six of them playing in a period between 1971 and 1986.

9. Real one-game wonders
Ian Bremner, Tom Harley and Stephen Gilham all bounced back from the disappointment of only playing one game with their first AFL/VFL club to become premiership players. For Bremner, one game in 1966 was all he got with the Pies, but he developed into a rock-solid defender at Hawthorn and played in both the 1971 and 1976 premiership sides. Harley’s one game with Port Adelaide came and went without fanfare. Only a writer of fairytales would predict that he would become a dual premiership captain with another club, but that’s exactly what happened when he joined Geelong. Gilham is the third resurrected one-gamer. Another Port Adelaide reject, he tasted the ultimate success with Hawthorn in 2008.

10. Are you free Wednesday morning?
Possibly the oddest time for a game of league football occurred in 1920, when a full round was scheduled on a Wednesday to coincide with the visit of the Prince of Wales. Two of those games, Richmond and Collingwood at the Punt Road Oval and Fitzroy versus Geelong at the Brunswick Street Oval, both started at 10.45am.

Mark Fine presents the evening show on SEN 1116. He is the author of ‘The Book of Footy Lists’, to be published by the Slattery Media Group next month.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily of the clubs or the AFL.

More Footy Lists