Making History with VFL/AFL Final Scores

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If the historical game data that I have is correct, we've gone very close to witnessing history this weekend, with the Hawthorn v Fremantle final score of 137-79 coming within a kick of finishing, instead, as a 131-79 win, or as a 138-79 win. Neither of these final scores were ever recorded in the 14,373 game history of the VFL/AFL between 1897 and 2013.

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The Predictability of 2013

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Friend of MAFL, Michael, e-mailed me earlier to ask about my claim that 2013 was on track to be the most predictable MAFL season ever, pointing out, quite correctly, that bookmaker favourites have been winning at about the same rate - perhaps even at a slightly higher rate - as they had been at the same time last year.
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Fooled By Lumpiness

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In a typical AFL game in 2012 the winning team registered about 30 scoring shots and the losing team about 20. On the assumption that the sequence of team scoring shots is random - so that, for example, the winning team's probability of registering the next scoring shot is always 60%, regardless of whether or not it was the team to score last - how likely is it, do you think, that we'd witness a run of 5 or more consecutive scoring shots by the winning team is such a game?
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Why April's Conceivably Better Than March

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It's an unlikely scenario I know, but if the players on the AFL Seniors lists ever got to talking about shared birthdays I'd wager they'd find themselves perplexed. As chestnuts go, the Birthday problem is about as hoary as they come. It's about the probability that two randomly selected people share a birthday and its longevity is due to the amazement most people express on discovering that you need just 23 randomly selected people to make it more likely than not that two or more of them will share a birthday. I'll venture that few if any of the 634 players on the current Seniors lists know that but, even if any of them did, they'd probably still be startled by what I'll call the AFL Birthday phenomenon.
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