Reading about the Saints wooden spoons the other day, I was intrigued about other wooden spoon winners over the years and decided to dig a little deeper.
While doing so, I found there have been a few teams over the years who've produced one or more winless seasons. More so than the spoons themselves, surely this is the measure of a truly shit team.
Of those to produce winless seasons, two have already died a horrible death and you have to wonder why natural selection has spared the remaining candidates.
Anyway, here's the list:
St Kilda (1897, 1898, 1899, 1902) - The undisputed king of wooden spoons, also holds the record for most winless seasons. While their ineptitude is legendary, it should be noted that all winless seasons were in the club's infancy.
Norf (1926, 1931, 1934) - Together with Hawthorn, Norf were a disgrace to the 1925 entrants to the VFL, winning 10 of the first 11 wooden spoons on offer after their entrance. Norf takes the cake though, being only second to St Kilda in overall wooden spoons and winless seasons. If there was a Bay 13 in 1934 they would surely be calling for Norf to fold, a plight still faced by their supporters to this very day.
University (1913, 1914) - Seemingly entered into the VFL with the sole purpose of getting the Saints off the last rung of the ladder, University never really got the chance to find its mojo and was killed off. As this shows, they were pretty shit, however shitter teams (see above) both before and after them were allowed to remain in the competition.
Hawthorn (1928, 1950) - Its hard to believe that with all their zoning based success, Hawthorn were once a pathetic rabble, shaded only by Norf at the time for shittest team in the land.
Melbourne (1919) - It would appear that bruise-free football was not invented by the current day Demons, but in fact pioneered by their forefathers - the Redlegs. So shit was this season by the Redlegs that their dismal percentage of 43.0 has never since been beaten.
Fitzroy (1964) - The poor old Roys were the most recent team to produce a winless season in '64 and it all went downhill fast from there. Like University, their murder can be considered harsh when you take into account some of the shit produced by other teams on this list.
So there you have it people. The undisputed shittest teams in VFL/AFL history. Discuss.
While doing so, I found there have been a few teams over the years who've produced one or more winless seasons. More so than the spoons themselves, surely this is the measure of a truly shit team.
Of those to produce winless seasons, two have already died a horrible death and you have to wonder why natural selection has spared the remaining candidates.
Anyway, here's the list:
St Kilda (1897, 1898, 1899, 1902) - The undisputed king of wooden spoons, also holds the record for most winless seasons. While their ineptitude is legendary, it should be noted that all winless seasons were in the club's infancy.
Norf (1926, 1931, 1934) - Together with Hawthorn, Norf were a disgrace to the 1925 entrants to the VFL, winning 10 of the first 11 wooden spoons on offer after their entrance. Norf takes the cake though, being only second to St Kilda in overall wooden spoons and winless seasons. If there was a Bay 13 in 1934 they would surely be calling for Norf to fold, a plight still faced by their supporters to this very day.
University (1913, 1914) - Seemingly entered into the VFL with the sole purpose of getting the Saints off the last rung of the ladder, University never really got the chance to find its mojo and was killed off. As this shows, they were pretty shit, however shitter teams (see above) both before and after them were allowed to remain in the competition.
Hawthorn (1928, 1950) - Its hard to believe that with all their zoning based success, Hawthorn were once a pathetic rabble, shaded only by Norf at the time for shittest team in the land.
Melbourne (1919) - It would appear that bruise-free football was not invented by the current day Demons, but in fact pioneered by their forefathers - the Redlegs. So shit was this season by the Redlegs that their dismal percentage of 43.0 has never since been beaten.
Fitzroy (1964) - The poor old Roys were the most recent team to produce a winless season in '64 and it all went downhill fast from there. Like University, their murder can be considered harsh when you take into account some of the shit produced by other teams on this list.
So there you have it people. The undisputed shittest teams in VFL/AFL history. Discuss.
