A history of match aggregate scores in the VFL

The author of Rogers Results, when I contacted him about the unusual fact that North Melbourne scored a century at Victoria Park before Richmond did, said that I should do a project on the history of the highest VFL match aggregate score since 1897.

I had known for years the progression since that match where Collingwood and North Melbourne scored a total of 286 points (forty-two goals), but before 1933 the progression of the record match aggregate score remained a mystery. However, a quick check of Every Game Ever Played, a guide to V/AFL results up to 1997 unmatched in any other competition, provides adequate details to work out the highest match aggregate scores before then.

In the early years of the VFL, however, aggregate scores were almost always dominated by whatever the highest score a single team could make. Two teams even slightly less unbalanced were never even in the driest conditions capable of kicking as much as a top team could against St. Kilda or Carlton. Only after those teams emerged in 1903, thus, did record of combined match scores become of any value at all. Consequently, my survey begins in 1905 and continues up to the present longstanding record set in 1978. (A notable fact is that two of the five highest match aggregate scores have occured on the same day; viz. May 6 of 1978 and 1989.)

Year	Round
1905	3	St. Kilda	1.2	2.6	4.7	10.10 (70)	188
		Collingwood	3.3	6.7	13.10	18.10 (118)
1909	13	Carlton	6.4	8.6	13.11	19.16 (130)	200
		Geelong	3.1	4.6	7.8	10.10 (70)
The first match to break the 200 point barrier, in probably the gloomiest and wettest winter known in Victoria.
1911	16	St. Kilda	1.2	2.7	3.7	5.8 (38)	201
		Essendon	8.4	12.7	20.14	24.19 (163)
1919	12	South Melbourne	2.5	6.7	12.11	29.15 (189)	207
		St. Kilda	0.0	2.2	2.6	2.6 (18)
1920	18	Fitzroy	9.6	11.10	15.17	22.17 (149)	218
		St. Kilda	3.1	4.1	6.2	11.3 (69)
Last quarter aggregate of 12.1 beaten for accuracy only by Hawthorn against Footscray in 1962.
1923	18	Melbourne	4.6	7.8	9.14	11.21 (87)	225
		Collingwood	5.2	10.5	15.9	21.12 (138)
1924	5	Collingwood	3.4	9.9	15.13	19.17 (131)	238
		Carlton	3.3	8.4	11.8	16.11 (107)
Key forwards Gordon Coventry and Horrie Clover each kicked seven goals. Aggregate score unbeaten in a home-and-away game between the sides until 1987
1926	8	Collingwood	8.8	12.10	21.14	28.16 (184)	242
		Footscray	2.3	4.6	6.6	8.10 (58)
Gordon Coventry kicked eleven goals in the first 100-point win since 1919.
1930	12	Collingwood	5.5	9.8	16.14	25.17 (167)	261
		Fitzroy	2.5	6.11	9.13	13.16 (94)
Gordon Coventry kicked a VFL record seventeen goals in the first match to break the 250 point barrier.
1931	17	St. Kilda	6.3	9.8	14.11	21.16 (142)	270
		Collingwood	5.3	8.6	15.6	20.8 (128)
Coventry kicked eleven goals and became the first man to kick double figures for a losing side. Bill Mohr kicked eleven for the Saints – still an equal record against Collingwood
1933	17	Collingwood	5.3	10.8	18.11	25.15 (165)	286
		North Melbourne	2.1	6.5	13.10	17.19 (121)
Coventry kicked another nine. This was the first of 35 successive losses by North, though eight were by less than a goal! Tom Fitzmaurice kicked six for them.
1934	8	Essendon	6.4	14.12	19.14	29.16 (190)	293
		North Melbourne	3.3	6.5	9.11	15.13 (103)
Freyer and Forbes kicked fifteen between them for Essendon. North’s losing margin was the highest by a team scoring a century until Round 6, 1977. Against St. Kilda the following week, Essendon’s score fell by 132 points, a record until 1983.
1937	16	Collingwood	8.4	13.8	19.14	21.16 (142)	295
		Melbourne	4.6	9.13	13.15	22.21 (153)
An epic match between two of the finest attacking sides in history, to be compared with Hawthorn’s games with Geelong in 1989. Lou Reiffel kicked eight for the Demons and Norm Smith five. Remains Collingwood’s highest losing score.
1940	10	Melbourne	9.6	13.11	17.17	22.19 (151)	305
		Geelong	7.2	15.4	19.9	24.10 (154)
Melbourne’s record for the highest losing score unbroken until 1976. Barassi senior nearly won with a free on the bell.
1942	2	Melbourne	4.3	6.4	16.8	18.9 (117)	313
		Richmond	4.2	14.8	18.8	30.16 (196)
On a rare dry (but windy) day in Melbourne’s wettest May on record, played at Punt Road because the MCG was used by the Army. Harris kicked seven, Titus six and Dyer four for the Tigers as they kicked the highest score for any quarter since 1919 in the last term.
1972	Grand Final	Richmond	5.4	10.9	15.15	22.18 (150)	327
		Carlton	8.4	18.6	25.9	28.9 (177)
A major upset win, planned by captain-coach John Nicholls who made mass positional changes beforehand against a Tiger team unbeaten in twelve games. Nicholls, Alex Jesaulenko and Robert Walls shared nineteen goals. Given that Richmond conceded three of the four highest scores of that year amongst five losses, the game was less of an aberration for them than Carlton, who have not exceeded 295 points aggregate in a home-and-away game.
1978	6	Melbourne	6.2	8.5	15.8	21.15 (141)	345
		St. Kilda	8.7	19.12	23.13	31.18 (204)
On a very warm 25˚C day, St. Kilda kicked its highest score in any grade of footy, with Russell Greene (five goals) dominating on the ball and wingmen O’Keefe and Tweeddale (three goals each) outpointing Demon champion Robert Flower. Melbourne coach Dennis Jones described the game as a “freak”.

Since 1978, there have been two 337-point aggregates, in the first of which Russell Greene, the hero of the present-record-holding game, played for a Hawthorn side that succumbed to Richmond for the last time for a decade. Michael Byrne, who had played for Melbourne in that game, also played for Hawthorn and kicked three of their twenty-one goals.

In the other 337-point game, Geelong achieved a 119-point win over St. Kilda with the fifth-highest score in history. In the process its fans saw 102 goals scored in two consecutive games. Only Sydney, in its 1987 demolitions of Essendon and Richmond, has otherwise played two consecutive games with over 300 points, but these totalled only 93 goals. In 1985, Richmond had two 300-point aggregates in three games, viz:

1. 309 points against St. Kilda in Round Three
2. 337 points against Hawthorn in Round Five

(Their intermediate game in Round Four against Fitzroy totalled only 199 points, but given the very heavy conditions, that was by no means a low-scoring game)