Gerard Healy dispels the biggest myth in AFL footy

I'd like to discuss the biggest myth in football, so important as we head to finals.

The side on top of the ladder has won just one game in six weeks and are in as deep a hole as anyone in the top 12 teams, perhaps the deepest.

Two sides, Brisbane and the Dogs were written off at various stages this season with their coaches said to be out the door next year. Well, they're now looking unstoppable.

Port Adelaide. The crowd booed their coach a few weeks ago, now they're singing his name in the streets as they surge to third on the ladder.

The Blues. Well, they got to flag favouritism but have stumbled ever since and will be out of the eight next week if they can't beat the Hawks, having lost the Pies last Saturday by just three points.

The Pies have looked done for some time, but if they beat the Swans, which they should given the Swans can't beat anyone just at present, they may well make a late run … who knows what will happen?

But there'll be much interest in Friday night's game when the Pies visit the SCG.

Yes, it's already started. The focus is on the geography, the size of the said ground, the SCG - the Sydney Cricket Ground.

As Jack Crisp called it this morning on SEN Breakfast, ‘The close confines of the SCG’.

Well, given that the Swans are still some chance of hosting finals at the SCG. Let's deal with the biggest myth in footy.

In the ‘80s, the difference between the SCG, the Gabba and the MCG was quite significant even though it never figured in the build-up to any particular game.

Now it gets an astonishing amount of coverage. The focus is amazing as if it's of great significance.

I spoke to two coaches last week and both agreed in their minds, it’s a ‘furphy’. But if you talk about it often enough people absolutely believe it.

I heard a commentator take it to the extreme three weeks ago saying just how big an advantage or disadvantage it was giving or getting a 50m penalty at the SCG. It was hysterical that he actually believed it.

We've all heard so many times just how important it is to get the ball out of the centre at the SCG year after year. Commentator after commentator. Coach after coach. Player after player.

Well, enough already. This is a myth. The biggest myth in football.

Let's discuss, at the MCG there is an average of 11 points per game scored from centre bounces.

At the SCG where we're told year after year, that it's so important to get the ball out of the centre, the scores on average per game is … to justify it, you’d have to think it’s in the 20s, 25 points perhaps?

20 points? No. 15 points? No. 14? 13? 12? No. No. No.

The average score from centre bounce clearances at the ‘very, very small SCG’ is … 11 points. The exact same as the MCG this year.

This includes a side, the Swans, who have dominated centre clearance for most of the year.

So, for goodness sake, give me a spell.

Yes, the SCG is 2.5 metres shorter than the MCG from the centre circle to the goal line, but it's just 500 millimetres shorter than the Gabba, the length of your forearm.

Does anyone talk about the length of the Gabba? No. Yet, it's virtually the same size.

I know there was once a significant difference in length at the SCG when the myth was born. But it's not now after the renovation and lengthening 10 years ago.

I know it's hard to ignore the conventional wisdom, particularly when you're being told year after year after year that it's of significance.

But please, enough is enough. There is no evidence to prove getting the ball out of the centre at the SCG is more important than the MCG.

In fact, the evidence proves otherwise.

It's the biggest myth in footy.