When the last unbeaten AFL club loses

Last unbeaten club lost in	# of seasons	Most recent season of occurrence
Game #2	NEVER
Game #3	3	St. Kilda and Essendon in 1989 Also in 1927 and 1940
Game #4	15	Essendon in 1997
Game #5	17	Brisbane and St. Kilda in 2010
Game #6	26	West Coast in 2006
Game #7	14	West Coast in 2012
Game #8	12	Carlton and Richmond in 1995
Game #9	14	West Coast in 2005
Game #10	3	Hawthorn in 2008
Game #11	4	St. Kilda in 2004
Game #12	1	Carlton in 1908
Game #13	1	West Coast in 1991
Game #14	3	Geelong in 2011
Game #15	NEVER
Game #16	NEVER
Game #17	NEVER
Game #18	NEVER
Game #19	NEVER
Game #20	1	St. Kilda in 2009
Game #21	1	Essendon in 2000
Game #22	NEVER
First Week of Finals	1	Collingwood in 1929
Second Week of Finals	NEVER
GRAND FINAL	NEVER
NEVER LOST A GAME	NEVER

Some notable facts that can be drawn from the table above are:

1. The most common date for the last unbeaten side to lose in VFL/AFL history has been the sixth game
2. The median date for the last unbeaten side to lose over all VFL/AFL history is in its sixth game; though since the expansion in 2011 it has not yet occurred that all clubs have been defeated after seven games.
3. Only fifteen sides have reached 9-0 (Carlton in 1921 were 7-0-2), yet six of these have been since 2000
   • In other words, whereas between 1897 and 1999 one 9-0 side occurred every eleven years
   • Since 2000 one 9-0 side has occurred every two years!
   • Before 2000, only Collingwood in 1929 reached 14 wins and no losses, yet in the thirteen seasons since then 14-0 has already occurred twice
4. This strongly suggests that replacement of open-roof Waverley with closed-roof Docklands has made it less impossible to earn a perfect season of 25 wins and no losses.
   • This is probably because shorter players - the Plattens and Liberatores of days gone by - are rendered valueless when the ball is travelling much higher and faster in the vertical realm.
   • Height is much more essential to mark the ball in a closed-roof stadium than in a wind-affected open-roof surface.
   • Any height requirement, because training cannot make people taller as it can make men heavier for gridiron or sumo wrestling, will reduce the supply of available talent
   • If the supply of available talent is reduced, then the best players will be of much greater value and games will be between the “good” and “not so good”

David Berri showed point (4) in his classic “The Short Supply of Tall People”, but it seems the AFL has fallen into this trap trying to compete with basketball, at whose expense most of its growth since 2000 has been obtained.

Now I will tabulate how often each competing club has been the last or equal last to suffer defeat since it entered the league:

Club	# of seasons as last unbeaten club	Most recent season as last unbeaten club	% of seasons competing
Adelaide	2	1996	9.09
Brisbane	3	2010	11.54
Carlton	14	1995	12.06
Collingwood	16	1992	13.79
Essendon	21	2000	18.42
Fitzroy	8	1951	8.00
Footscray/Western Bulldogs	5	1961	5.68
Fremantle	NEVER		0.00
Geelong	9	2011	7.96
Gold Coast	NEVER		0.00
Greater Western Sydney	NEVER		0.00
Hawthorn	6	2008	6.82
Melbourne	11	1994	9.73
North Melbourne	4	1979	4.54
Port Adelaide	NEVER		0.00
Richmond	9	1995	8.57
South Melbourne/Sydney	11	1998	9.56
St. Kilda	7	2010	6.14
University	NEVER		0.00
West Coast	6	2012	23.08

It is notable that the two established clubs who have never been the last winless side - Essendon and West Coast - have had the highest frequency as the last undefeated side. It is also interesting that Footscray’s present drought of Grand Final appearances dates from exactly the same year as the last time they were the last side to suffer defeat - in 1961.

Club	# of seasons beating last undefeated club	Most recent seasons beating last undefeated club	% of seasons competing
Adelaide	NEVER		0.00
Brisbane	NEVER		0.00
Carlton	16	1991	13.79
Collingwood	17	2005	14.66
Essendon	17	2012	14.91
Fitzroy	8	1989	8.00
Footscray/Western Bulldogs	6	2008	6.82
Fremantle	1	2006	5.56
Geelong	14	2007	12.39
Gold Coast	NEVER		0.00
Greater Western Sydney	NEVER		0.00
Hawthorn	6	1992	6.82
Melbourne	10	2010	8.85
North Melbourne	8	1996	9.09
Port Adelaide	1	2010	6.25
Richmond	8	1984	7.61
South Melbourne/Sydney	10	2004	8.69
St. Kilda	9	1999	7.89
University	NEVER		0.00
West Coast	1	2002	3.85

I think Name A Game could do a five-game special of Essendon’s wins over Sydney in 1987, Hawthorn in 2001, St. Kilda in 2009, Geelong in 2011 and West Coast in 2012. Collingwood’s wins over the last unbeaten team except for 2005 and 2008 were all before 1969: five times in the decade from 1932 to 1941. Footscray’s five includes spoiling two of the best chances for a “perfect season” in Melbourne of 1956 and Essendon of 2000 - something which has given the club a reputation as one capable of beating anyone but never being consistent enough for a flag.

The following teams have both beaten the last unbeaten club and lost to the last winless club:

1. St. Kilda in 1918 (successive weeks)
2. Carlton in 1951 (successive weeks)
3. Hawthorn in 1962 (successive weeks)
4. Geelong in 1963
5. Fitzroy in 1974
6. Essendon in 1981
7. Melbourne in 1993
8. Geelong in 1997 (though both after four rounds!)
9. Port Adelaide in 2010 (wet weather affected both games - a lesson for young people who did not know football pre-Docklands!)

In the following cases the last winless club beat the last unbeaten club:

1. 1903: Melbourne 4.8 (32) beat Carlton 1.2 (8) in an amazing game with only 0.1 kicked in the second quarter after 36.7 millimetres of rain drenched the MCG. It is the lowest score ever kicked against Melbourne.
2. 1987: Footscray 14.12 (96) beat Hawthorn 7.13 (55) in a game I remember well. The Bulldogs were last with a percentage of 41.6 but were superbly tough in restricting a potent attack to seven goals in perfect conditions.