Can Sam and Paddy complete a Brownlow full house?

NEW EAGLE Sam Mitchell has the chance to complete a rare set, providing he suits up against his old team in Sunday's twilight fixture.

Earn Brownlow votes against his old mates the 0-4 Hawks, and Mitchell can become the first player to poll against all 18 AFL clubs.

But Mitchell may be beaten to the remarkable achievement by barely an hour.

Reigning Brownlow winner Patrick Dangerfield also has votes in the bank against 17 of 18 clubs.

Danger has the chance to complete the set when the Cats face the Saints in Sunday’s 3.20pm slot.

An eagle-eyed Reddit poster worked out that nine other current players have polled votes against every club bar their own.

But seven of those nine have never changed clubs.

The exceptions are Crow champ Scott Thompson, and Gold Coast genius Gary Ablett.

Thompson failed to poll in his one game against the Crows as a Demon. And Ablett never had the chance to play against the Suns, as they were yet to enter the competition during his Geelong years between 2002-2010.

A return to the Cats in 2018 would give the dual Brownlow Medallist the chance to do that, but Mitchell and Dangerfield have first crack.

Brownlow votes against 17 clubs

Super Paddy’s kryptonite?

While Dangerfield has already polled against his old team, Adelaide, he has blown 13 chances to complete the Brownlow set by polling against the Saints.

The Saints are comfortably Danger's bogey team. He averages fewer disposals against them (18.54 per game) than he does against any other club.

Also in the running for the Brownlow full house

• Buddy Franklin still needs votes against Gold Coast and Fremantle
• Steve Johnson needs to poll against Geelong and Adelaide but is unlikely to complete the set this season, given the Giants' only 2017 game against the Crows was round one's 56-point loss

Club-switchers who blew their chance at the set

• Eagle Josh Kennedy did not win Brownlow votes against West Coast when at Carlton.
• Sydney Swan Josh Kennedy failed to poll against the Swans when playing for the Hawks (as well as never yet polling against the Eagles)

Pies doing time on the pine

It's hard to argue it was a good choice by Collingwood to leave skipper Scott Pendlebury on the bench for nearly 15 minutes of the third quarter against St Kilda.

The Saints piled on 4.5 to 2.1 in the quarter and held on in the final term to reduce the Magpies' win-loss record to 1-3.

While the decision raises eyebrows, it is at least consistent with Collingwood's recent approach. Pendles is far from the only Magpie mid to spend at least a 10-minute spell on the bench during 2017.

Magpie midfielders sitting down

Two teams hitting historic lows

The Saints are spraying it. Their 69 behinds to date marks their most wayward start to a season in 26 years. Back in 1981, they racked up an amazing 95 behinds in the first four rounds. The run included a remarkable 32 behinds in a 16.32 to 10.16 win over Melbourne.

And the Magpies can’t score. It's 49 years since they've kicked fewer than the 41 goals they've managed so far this season. The great Peter McKenna was sidelined at the start of that 1968 season, when Collingwood kicked just 28 goals in the first four rounds. The Magpies lost all four.

On the downside for Pies fans: no team with 41 goals or fewer after the first four rounds has made the finals since St Kilda in 2011. 

On the bright side: after four rounds in 1980 the Magpies were 1-3 and had 44 goals on the board. They went on to make the Grand Final.

Are red-time goals killing the Demons?

Does anything hurt more than the opposition scoring a goal late in a quarter that your team has dominated?

Melbourne supporters would argue not.

With five seconds remaining to half-time on Saturday, the Dockers kicked a goal against the run of play to narrow the margin to 21 points. After the break Freo unleashed seven unanswered goals.

Nat Fyfe celebrates as the Demons despair. Picture: AFL Photos

In round three, Geelong poached the final two goals of the third quarter to keep touch with the Demons. The Cats continued with the first three goals of the final to run away with the win.

However for all their recent wounds, the Demons only rank sixth for conceding red-time goals this year, having conceded 20 in time-on.

The team conceding the most red-time goals in 2017? Fremantle, with 32.

What you didn't notice on Good Friday

It was a historic match on Good Friday between the Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne but it's debatable whether it was football being played on the day.

The Roos recorded 193 kicks to 202 handballs. The Bulldogs' ratio was 188 to 189.

It was just the fifth time since 2010 that both teams recorded more handballs than kicks in a game.

Three of those matches involved the Bulldogs, so perhaps it is in the club's DNA.

Want more?

• Read more from the Stats Files

• Nine things we learned from round four

• Who starred for your club in this weekend's state leagues?