2021 Wooden Spoon

2021 Wooden Spoon

  • Adelaide Crows

    Votes: 128 11.3%
  • Brisbane Lions

    Votes: 2 0.2%
  • Carlton Blues

    Votes: 21 1.9%
  • Collingwood Magpies

    Votes: 29 2.6%
  • Essendon Bombers

    Votes: 140 12.4%
  • Fremantle Dockers

    Votes: 7 0.6%
  • Geelong Cats

    Votes: 11 1.0%
  • Gold Coast Suns

    Votes: 12 1.1%
  • GWS Giants

    Votes: 8 0.7%
  • Hawthorn Hawks

    Votes: 119 10.5%
  • Melbourne Demons

    Votes: 8 0.7%
  • North Melbourne Kangaroos

    Votes: 586 51.7%
  • Port Adelaide Power

    Votes: 3 0.3%
  • Richmond Tigers

    Votes: 20 1.8%
  • St Kilda Saints

    Votes: 5 0.4%
  • Sydney Swans

    Votes: 17 1.5%
  • West Coast Eagles

    Votes: 15 1.3%
  • Western Bulldogs

    Votes: 2 0.2%

  • Total voters
    1,133
Jul 22, 2013
18,776
27,426
AFL Club
Carlton
Essendon will struggle but remember that Daniher/Fantasia barely played this year, Saad is a loss but hopefully we can find a plug and play for him

6 7 and maybe 8 could potentially be ready to go

North on other hand are coachless and could be it

Essendon might be better off if they were coachless.

Rutten is the fist coach in history to step into the head coach role, and on his first day in the job he's lost the support of the players.
 
Jul 22, 2013
18,776
27,426
AFL Club
Carlton
I mean we've heard for 3 years that even if Raz and Daniher were fit we'd still be sh*t coz they're flash in the pan overrated players.

Now we lose them and we're gonna win the spoon coz they left?

🤷‍♂️

Can't see Essendon getting under North.

But. Never underestimate the destructive force of a morale problem, and whether Essendon people care to acknowledge that, they have one.

As of today North have a morale problem AND a dire list. But if they accidentally bring in the right coaching staff and galvanise the players, it could happen.
 

Red Bull

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 29, 2010
13,816
27,455
mornington peninsula
AFL Club
Carlton
Essendon might be better off if they were coachless.

Rutten is the fist coach in history to step into the head coach role, and on his first day in the job he's lost the support of the players.

Yep,
Rutten already has the senior players offside and the higher powers at the club seem to have him earmarked to go under the bus alongside Richardson.
Fascinating watch as always ...
 

JayJ20

Brownlow Medallist
Aug 28, 2016
17,146
26,094
AFL Club
Essendon
I doubt we win the spoon. We'll probably have a stronger list with an easy fixture. Bottom 4 a possibility though. Saad is the only real net loss as Fantasia and Daniher haven't contributed for 3 years. I'd say Adelaide, North and Sydney will be below us.

North are probably the early favourites.
 

blitzer

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 27, 2006
7,483
8,749
House
AFL Club
Essendon
I can see why people are nominating Essendon but I think there are far stronger contenders to take out the spoon next year. More of a chance to bottom 4-6 than spoon for us I'd say.

So if all expected moves occur you'd expect: Essendon lose McKenna, Saad, Daniher and Fantasia and gain Caldwell, possibly more but I'll leave that out of the discussion for now. We'll probably either have some high draft picks running around in our best 22 next year (likely on forward or back flanks) or we'll have traded them for a ready made player. Out of the players we are losing Saad was the only one to have a good 2020 and will be a real loss. We didn't get much out of McKenna, Daniher and Fantasia. I think you'd say maybe about 1 good game from each of them and a few below average injury affected games. Whilst we have some real issues with our defense and forward lines to work out I have trouble seeing us not winning enough games against the other bottom sides whilst fielding a midfield lead by Merrett, Shiel, McGrath, Heppell (assuming he's overcome his issues), Parish and perhaps Caldwell and then cameos from others. That's a fair bit of experienced quality compared to the teams we'd be competing with.
 

Catsnlakers

Even Hank Moody is in awe of Geelong!
Oct 2, 2016
8,205
12,234
AFL Club
Geelong
Other Teams
L.A Angels, Anaheim Ducks & M.Stars
It could get real messy for a handful of teams towards the final rounds of the year.

Roos then the Bombers the two likely teams.
I see the Crows still, a lot of people seem to be a little mesmerised by their last month, but they will be weaker next year than this year, on paper at least......They literally struggle to have one player who could be classed as A grade, at least the Roos will still have players like Cunnington & Goldy.
 

AuTo00Z

Club Legend
Feb 12, 2014
1,404
1,591
AFL Club
Collingwood
It's too early to tell at the moment. It'll depend on if teams like Essendon, GWS, North, Adelaide and Hawthorn can replace their lost talent with ready-made replacements.
 

AuTo00Z

Club Legend
Feb 12, 2014
1,404
1,591
AFL Club
Collingwood
I see the Crows still, a lot of people seem to be a little mesmerised by their last month, but they will be weaker next year than this year, on paper at least......They literally struggle to have one player who could be classed as A grade, at least the Roos will still have players like Cunnington & Goldy.
Nah, even before they won games, they were competitive in some games, even against some of the top teams (at least in patches). I remember in early parts of some games they were competitive before dropping off massively, and that's due to the lack of confidence. I think their midfield of Matt Crouch, Sloane, Laird, Keays etc should at least keep them competitve, unlike teams like Essendon and Hawthorn who have little to no midfield depth and can't win a contested possession to save themselves. Add in a couple of high draft picks in the middle and they're looking pretty good I reckon. The key position players like Fogarty, Himmelberg and McAsey will take time, but their midfielders, small forwards, wingers/half-backs look good tbh.
 

PAFC_1870

Cancelled
10k Posts
Feb 21, 2009
15,446
11,832
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
Ferrari, Chicago Bulls
Easy answer Essendon or North. Hawks honourable mention.

Smokey Adelaide pending what happens over the next few weeks.... they'll likely go in with even less experience at this rate and could actually be worse then this year.

North could spike with a change of Coach.
Essendon I can't think of a single positive atm, maybe a few weeks may give false hope (again).
Hawks have too good a coach to be that s**t.... but maybe he's had enough and that could cause a mess.
 

GroggSquad

Club Legend
Oct 2, 2014
1,321
2,689
AFL Club
Richmond
North could improve with Ben Cunnington, Tarryn Thomas etc. back.

Essendon should be in the mix.

Hard to see much upside with Adelaide right now - they are probably my pick. Selecting hometown star Jason Horne with #1 just a bonus.
 

AuTo00Z

Club Legend
Feb 12, 2014
1,404
1,591
AFL Club
Collingwood
If Essendon get Caldwell and Dunkley, no way they finish on the bottom
For me, the difference in terms of whether or not Essendon finish bottom or not is mainly on Dunkley. Get Dunkley in, their other midfielders will improve considerably from having a big body in there protecting them. If they don't land him, they'll get pushed around and struggle to get it inside 50 like they did this year.
 

AuTo00Z

Club Legend
Feb 12, 2014
1,404
1,591
AFL Club
Collingwood
Collingwood are a dark horse with the enviable (and self inflicted) exodus they are having and no standout kids coming through the ranks.
We have Quaynor, Stephenson, Ruscoe, Bianco, Rantall etc. And if there is an exodus, given most players in question are contracted, we will get something decent in return. And we would still have a good amount of experienced players to keep us competitive. It's not like everyone is going walk for nothing. We will get Reef McInnes at a bargain too.
 
Nov 9, 2010
2,262
2,223
de_dust2
AFL Club
Gold Coast
I'm going to say Essendon. There appears to be cultural issues, probably still some legacy issues of that thing we don't speak of. off field doesn't appear overly stable, players leaving, mentally weak list and a coach has a lot to prove, may have a target on his back already and isn't particularly inspiring. They aren't even aware that they need to rebuild yet either so they're still going backwards. Only north may challenge them but they'll probably get a decent coach at the very least.
 
Last edited:
Back