Who has collected the most AFL Wooden Spoons?
There are bad teams, and then there are awful teams who know nothing but collecting kitchen items for their trophy cabinets.
One team is yet to face the embarrassment of finishing at the bottom of the ladder, while one club is way ahead of the rest of the competition.
Let’s check out where your club sits.
List of AFL Wooden Spooners
AFL Teams With 0 Wooden Spoons
Port Adelaide Power
They are the last remaining club not to claim the dreaded wooden spoon. Despite an awful couple of seasons where the tarps were out and the on-field was a shambles, the Power somehow avoided finishing last.
It’s a proud record for a proud club that doesn’t tolerate dismal failure.
AFL Teams With 1 Wooden Spoon
Adelaide Crows & Fremantle Dockers
There’s something about South Australian teams and refusing to finish on the bottom of the ladder. But the Crows have taken their turn once in their recent tumble down the ladder. In a further blow, they weren’t even rewarded with the full benefits of the number one pick arriving at their club when they got there.
Fremantle have also only tasted the bitterness of finishing on the bottom of the ladder, and it came seven years after they entered the competition. It’s a flex they can hold over their crosstown rivals that they’ve finished on the bottom less than they have.
AFL Teams With 2 Wooden Spoons
Collingwood Magpies, GWS Giants, Gold Coast Suns, Brisbane Lions & Brisbane Bears
Even if they are few and far between, one of the biggest clubs in the land has their turn on the bottom from time to time.
Collingwood has only two wooden spoons to its name, and the biggest discrepancy from most titles to least last place finishes (16-2).
The Suns and the Giants have had differing journeys in the infancy of their AFL life. While one has struggled to make inroads and the other has jumped out to be a force of nature on the field, the pair share one thing in common – both with the same number of wooden spoons from the earliest days of their lives.
The Brisbane Bears were the second expansion side to join the VFL in 1987 and while they battled early, didn’t register their first wooden spoon until 1990. They backed up their last-placed finish the following year as the club fell into financial trouble, eventually leading to the merger to become the Brisbane Lions.
Speaking of the Lions, for all the success that they had, their falls were hard. Still, only the two wooden spoons to date, and have been successful launching pads for successful eras.
AFL Teams With 3 Wooden Spoons
West Coast Eagles
The biggest club in the west have been known to hit rock bottom occasionally and recent history suggests that may become more common.
After a small bounce back in 2024 (finishing anywhere but the bottom), the Eagles have rebounded to the bottom across 2025, earning their third Spoon.
Let’s hope with some recent approvals to draft compensation they can avoid a second straight added to the tally in 2026.
AFL Teams With 4 Wooden Spoons
Western Bulldogs & University
The Bulldogs have constantly been the scrappers, the battlers, and one of the clubs fighting for survival. For all the times the club has supposedly been on the brink of collapse, they have only taken home the wooden spoon four times in their history with their last one coming in 2003.
University was only in the competition for eight years and took home the wooden spoon in four of them. The club still exists in a different form, but there’s a reason they didn’t last in the VFL.
AFL Teams With 5 Wooden Spoons
Carlton Blues, Essendon Bombers & Geelong Cats
How the mighty Carlton fell.
The turn of the century hasn’t been kind to one of the competition's most successful teams, even if it has been mostly by their own doing. The Blues have racked up their five wooden spoons in a 20-year patch. Much to the pleasure of all the opposition teams - The most of any team in the 21st century.
The Bomber’s latest wooden spoon came in a year when they were resigned to losing nearly all their games due to their team being suspended by WADA. Before that, The Dons' latest spoons came around wartime.
Geelong really is the envy of the competition. The last of their five wooden spoons came way back in 1958. They are just a really good footy club, they don’t let themselves drop any lower than eighth, don’t they?
AFL Teams With 8 Wooden Spoons
Richmond Tigers & Fitzroy Lions
Filling the cabinet with Wooden Spoons isn’t exactly what you want to be doing when your club is on death row and fighting for survival.
But when Fitzroy brought home their seventh and eighth wooden spoons in consecutive years, the end was nigh.
The constant battlers before they got finished up, but to the Roys’ credit, while they found themselves on the bottom often enough, the years of near misses and times they missed the bottom is admirable.
Then there’s Richmond, before they were premiers, they were Ninthmond. Before then, they were sometimes spooners.
The Tigers have taken home the spoon on another eight occasions, including four in their 37-year barren run between flags.
The last came in the same year their compatriots (Fitroy’s merger partners the Brisbane Lions) won their latest premiership in 2024. The tiger faithful will be praying that the tally won’t grow with the addition of the latest top draft picks.
AFL Teams With 11 Wooden Spoons
Sydney Swans & Hawthorn Hawks
The Swans claimed the last of their 11 wooden spoons when they had a three-peat of last-placed finishes in the early ninety’s when the clubs’ fortunes were looking dire.
Since then, the club’s transformation has been the envy of the league, and the thought of them adding to their 11 wooden spoons anytime soon seems preposterous.
Speaking of preposterous things, the Hawks have claimed 11 wooden spoons…. But their last one was 58 years ago!!
It would seem that with both these clubs, while they might not be right on or near the top of the perch, they’re rarely at the bottom.
AFL Teams With 12 Wooden Spoons
Melbourne Demons
The Dees sit third on this list with an even dozen. But you scratch your head and wonder how it wasn’t any greater considering just how dire some of those years were in the mid-2000s and in the Mark Neeld era.
Oh yes, the expansion teams... that’s why.
AFL Teams With 15 Wooden Spoons
North Melbourne Kangaroos
It’s been a tough existence for North Melbourne. While they’ve won four flags, the 15 spoons that go with it, including some this decade. It must be a painful experience being a fan.
Watch this space too, the number doesn’t look like stagnating anytime soon.
AFL Teams With 27 Wooden Spoons
St Kilda Saints
And way out in front of the pack, is the Saints.
It must be a tortured existence being a St Kilda fan. Only one flag and 27 wooden spoons.
It’s actually impressive how many times you can finish last.
They’re so far ahead of every other club, no matter how bad they are or ever will be, can breathe a sigh of relief.
Surely no one is catching them.
So there you have it, the entire list of AFL wooden spoons. How has your team faired in the history books? Keep on reading on The Huddle and find out some more positive stats such as the Teams With The Most AFL Premierships or Highest Plaid AFL Players of 2025.
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