List of VFL/AFL wooden spoons

The wooden spoon is the imaginary and ironic "award" which is said to be won by the team finishing in last place in the Australian Football League. No physical wooden spoon award exists, other than those brought by opposition fans to taunt struggling teams, nor is such an award officially sanctioned by the VFL/AFL. However, most betting agencies will take wagers on the wooden spoon.

Criteria[]

The team which finishes on the bottom of the ladder wins the wooden spoon. This is determined by:

• Fewest premiership points (four points for a win, two points for a draw)
• Lowest percentage (the ratio of points for to points against if on same numbers of points)

No countback exists if teams finish equal on points but with a different number of wins.

1901–1907[]

From 1901 to 1907, the VFL season was set up such that each team played fourteen regular season games: two games against each opponent. Based upon regular season ladder positions, teams were divided into pools A (1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th) and B (2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th), and each team played the opponents from its pool once each in the "sectional round."

Following the sectional round, the results of these matches were added to the ladder to give a final ladder based on seventeen matches per team. As such, the wooden spooner is considered to be the team which finishes last after all seventeen matches.

The three sectional games changed the outcome of the wooden spoon twice in the seven seasons of this format: in 1905, St Kilda beat Geelong in their last game, relegating Melbourne to last, and in 1907, Fitzroy won all three of their games, relegating Essendon to last.

1916[]

In the 1916, only four teams (Carlton, Collingwood, Fitzroy and Richmond) competed due to World War I. Fitzroy finished last after the home-and-away season with a record of 2–9–1 (10 pts), and Richmond finished third with a record of 5–7–0 (20 pts).

All four teams competed in the finals under the amended Argus system in place at the time. Richmond lost their Semi-Final and finished in overall last place as the lowest placed Semi-Final loser, while Fitzroy won their Semi-Final, the Final and the Grand Final to win the premiership.

This has created uncertainty to some extent regarding which team lays claim to the 1916 wooden spoon; by analogy with the minor and major premierships, it could be said that Fitzroy won the "minor wooden spoon" and Richmond won the "major wooden spoon".

The official AFL Season Guide recognises Richmond as the wooden spooners for the 1916 VFL season, while the Football Record in 1917–1923 listed the teams' positions for 1916 as Fitzroy, Carlton, Collingwood and Richmond.

Records[]

• St Kilda has won the most wooden spoons of any existing AFL team, with 27. Its most recent wooden spoon came in 2014.
  • This is followed up by North Melbourne, with 14 wooden spoons. Its most recent was in 2021.
• Carlton has the longest wooden spoon drought in VFL/AFL history, and was the last of the foundation clubs to win a wooden spoon. Its first wooden spoon came in 2002, the club's 106th season of VFL/AFL competition. Despite this, they currently have the most wooden spoons in the 21st century with five.
• Collingwood has won the least wooden spoons of the foundation clubs, with two.
• Essendon and Collingwood are the only teams to follow up a wooden spoon with a Grand Final appearance, in 1907–08 and 1976–77 respectively. Neither were victorious.
• Essendon holds the record for the swiftest rise from wooden spoon to premiership, two seasons: they finished last in 1921 and won back-to-back premierships in 1923–24.
• Melbourne and Fitzroy hold the record for the swiftest descent from premiership to wooden spoon, three seasons: Melbourne finished last in 1951 after winning the premiership in 1948, and Fitzroy laid partial claim to the 1916 wooden spoon after winning the premiership in 1913.
• Fitzroy was the only team to win both a wooden spoon and a premiership in the same season; due to World War I, the VFL competition featured only four teams, all of which competed in the finals. Fitzroy finished last on the ladder, but performed strongly in the finals and defeated Carlton to win the premiership.
• St Kilda, Hawthorn, Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney all won the wooden spoon in their inaugural season in the VFL/AFL.
  • Further, Greater Western Sydney also won the inaugural AFL Women's wooden spoon with only one win and a draw from seven matches played.
• Collingwood in 1976 holds the record for the most wins by a wooden spooner with six.
• Thirteen wooden spooners failed to win a match during the season, the most recent being Fitzroy in 1964.
• The highest percentage recorded by a wooden spoon team was by South Melbourne, with 91.3% in 1922.
• Port Adelaide is the only team to have not yet been awarded a wooden spoon.
• Melbourne in 1997 is the first (and currently only) wooden spoon team to win both their first and last matches of the home-and-away season.
• Carlton is the first (and currently only) team to have both its men's and women's teams win the wooden spoon in the same season, which occurred in 2018.

Wooden spoons by season[]

Wooden spoons by club[]

Bold indicates clubs currently playing in the AFL.

Longest wooden spoon droughts[]

Active wooden spoon droughts[]

AFL Women's[]

References and Notes[]

External links[]

• AFL Wooden Spoon Awardees