Vested Interest: Part 2

Updated article – why?  Errors fixed, new information on bench positions, and Roy missed the first one (apparently it wasn’t on his Raydar).

The Thornley–Hopkins Trophy

I’ve renamed the award for most vests, as it looked like Andrew Gaff was not going to win his own trophy.  It’s now named after the most famous activation in AFL history.  Carlton trails Collingwood by 44 points at half time in the 1970 Grand Final.  The uninjured Bert Thornley is replaced by Ted Hopkins who kicks 4 goals as the Blues storm home to win.

Ted Hopkins later founds Champion Data introducing detailed statistics into the AFL, a necessary precursor to Dream Team, while Bert Thornley becomes a difficult trivia question.

But without Bert Thornley there would be no Ted Hopkins, no Champion Data and no DreamTeam.  Essendon would have won the most AFL premierships alone, Roy, Calvin and Warnie would just be 3 unknown pissheads in Tasmania, and I would have made more progress on various domestic tasks this winter.  Perhaps Bert’s got a lot to answer for.

Anyway these are the standings in the Award after round 13.

Vests no.:	1	2	3	4	5
Adel	9	B.Martin	B.Symes
	singles	P.Davis	J.Petrenko
		B.Smith	C.Schmidt
Bris	12	C.Beams	J.O’Brien		R.Bewick
	singles	A.Cornelius
Carl	12	M.Jamison		D.Armfield
	singles	A.Walker
		A.Joseph
		S.Hampson
Coll	9	A.Krakouer	A.Toovey
	singles	B.Dick
		T.Goldsack
		J.Blair
		S.Buckley
Ess	9	Lovett-Murray	A.Monfries
	singles	A.Davey
		K.Reimers
		A.Browne
		H.Hocking
		B.Prismall
Freo	10	J.Pitt	R.Palmer
	singles	H.Ballantyne	D.Roberton
		J.Crichton
		N.Lower
Geel	15	T.Varcoe	D.Milburn	A.Christensen
	singles
GC	7	N.Krakouer	D.Gorringe
	singles	A.Magin
		J.Toy
		D.Prestia
		L.Patrick
		R.Liddy
Haw	16		B.Renouf		L.Breust
	singles
Melb	12	A.Maric
	singles	D.Nicholson
		J.Watts
		N.Jetta
		J.Bennell
		C.Garland
North	6	L.Hansen	J.Ziebell	B.Speight
	singles	L.Anthony	C.Garlett	B.Cunnington
Port	9	J.Surjan	J.Davenport
	singles	D.Rodan	A.Moore
		D.Stewart	C.Hitchcock
Rich	11	B.Helbig	B.Nason	S.Tuck
	singles	S.Edwards
		T.Hislop
St.K	9	T.Ledger	A.McQualter	J.Cripps
	singles	B.Peake
		T.Simpkin
		R.Clarke
Syd	7	G.Rohan	L.Parker
	singles	T.DennisLane	A.Everitt
		S.Reid	L.Jetta
		M.Seaby
WCE	11			C.Masten	A.Gaff
	singles			B.Ebert
WB	13	B.Hall	B.Moles	N.Djerrkura
	singles	J.Hill

Obviously different teams are using subs in different ways, so this information may help you to avoid vested players.  A reminder that there is no vestism in this Award – red vests are hated just as much as green vests by DT coaches.

Where is the sub likely to be named on Thursday night?

Well of the 202 subs so far:

• 34 (17%) were named on the field,
• 149 (74%) were named on the interchange bench,
• 19 (9%) were not named in the listed 22, but came into the side as a late inclusion.

Which teams are more likely to name their subs on the field?

• Collingwood and North have done it 5 times,
• Carlton 4 times,
• Fremantle 3 times,
• Geelong, Gold Coast, Hawthorn, Port, Richmond, St.Kilda and Western Bulldogs twice,
• Adelaide, Essendon, West Coast only once, and
• Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne never.

Is there a bias to the position number where the sub is named on the bench?

• For a 4 man bench the proportions are (starting from left): 16%, 27%, 24%, 33%.
• For a 7 man bench: 21%, 9%, 15%, 15%, 18%, 18%, 3%.

Note: Sometimes I didn’t have a record of the initial extended bench, only the reduced bench.

Jedi mind trick: to members of DT Talk Legends league – “this is a garbage article and a waste of time for me to read”.

Hope this helps the rest of you,

Nix