What is the worst team in AFL history?

[Maddhew]

Hang on, I thought the Swans never bottomed out !

Roos played for 3 of those teams

Actually roos played for none of them, left the roys in 94, started with the Swans in 95

FAIL

 

[SOSForever]

i might be wrong, but i think those two wins were against fremantle

St. Kilda and Richmond but close...

 

[red+black]

Actually roos played for none of them, left the roys in 94, started with the Swans in 95

Thought I'd compare the win/loss record of Roos going from Fitzroy to Sydney to if he had have gone the other way:

[B]               W  D   L[/B]
1993 Fitzroy  10  0  12
1994 Fitzroy   5  0  17
1995 Sydney    8  0  14
1996 Sydney   18  1   6

[B]               W  D   L[/B]
1993 Sydney    1  0  21
1994 Sydney    4  0  18
1995 Fitzroy   2  0  20
1996 Fitzroy   1  0  21

LOL

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

Surely University should come into consideration, i know we are talking VFL at the time, though between 1911 - 1914, they won 2 of 72, and 4 straight wooden spoons...

Thank god for University or we may have had another 4 spoons!

Should bring em back.

 

[Maddhew]

Thought I'd compare the win/loss record of Roos going from Fitzroy to Sydney to if he had have gone the other way:

[B]               W  D   L[/B]
1993 Fitzroy  10  0  12
1994 Fitzroy   5  0  17
1995 Sydney    8  0  14
1996 Sydney   18  1   6
 
[B]              W  D   L[/B]
1993 Sydney    1  0  21
1994 Sydney    4  0  18
1995 Fitzroy   2  0  20
1996 Fitzroy   1  0  21

LOL

He was a fair player P Roos.

8 time AA, AFL MVP, 121 brownlow votes as a backman, 2nd in 86 brownlow.

 

[Wallaby]

I went to Fizroy's last Melbourne game- just an awful, awful day.

At 1/4 time I said to my mate 'If we start kicking straight, we will win by 150 points'.

We did, and we did.

 

[kosifantutti]

As the title suggests what is the worst team in AFL (not VFL) history? Here are the teams which have finished last in each season from 1991 onwards.

Year - Team - Wins - Percentage
1991 - Brisbane Lions - 3 - 69.53%
1992 - Sydney Swans - 3 - 74.13%
1993 - Sydney Swans - 1 - 63.32%
1994 - Sydney Swans - 4 - 78.07%
1995 - Fitzroy Lions - 2 - 58.17%
1996 - Fitzroy Lions - 1 - 49.47%
1997 - Melbourne Demons - 4 - 60.81%
1998 - Brisbane Lions - 5 - 75.83%
1999 - Collingwood Magpies - 4 - 84.82%
2000 - St Kilda Saints - 2 - 70.51%
2001 - Fremantle Dockers - 2 - 72.02%
2002 - Carlton Blues - 3 - 73.13%
2003 - Western Bulldogs - 3 - 74.79%
2004 - Richmond Togers - 4 - 69.24%
2005 - Carlton Blues - 4 - 75.51%
2006 - Carlton Blues - 1 - 74.16%
2007 - Richmond Tigers - 3 - 77.18%
2008 - Melbourne Demons - 3 - 62.61%

Carlton for consistency over at least six years.

BTW.
No such teams as St Kilda Saints, Carlton Blues, Richmond Tigers, Melbourne Demons. I HATE seeing the original teams written in that standardised Americanised form.

Certainly no such team as Richmond Togers

 

[BLPC08]

If you take into consideration how much they were paying their players, Carlton 2006 is clearly the worst.

 

[enosis7]

"Blues worse than Fitzroy say stats" by Mark Stevens (Herald Sun, 9 April 2008)

“WE are far worse than Fitzroy”.
The headline that screamed out at Herald Sun readers in January last year related to the money woes at Carlton.
Blues finance manager Marcus Rose painted a bleak picture in a bid to get supporter backing for a $67 million redevelopment of Princes Park, designed to lift flagging revenue streams.
The brutal honesty caused an uproar. Rose resigned the next day.
Just 14 months on, the finances have been fixed.
But the headline remains relevant.
Carlton’s recent on-field record is far worse than Fitzroy.
Since the start of 2002, the Blues have played 135 games. They have won just 28.
The sad, deflated Fitzroy team managed a better record on death row.
In the 135 games leading up to their emotional final outing in 1996, the Lions won 33.
The homeless Lions, emotionally wounded by the loss of key players, managed a send-off winning strike-rate of 24.4 per cent. Since the start of 2002, Carlton has a winning strike-rate of 21.5.
Take out the 10 games won in 2004 and Carlton has saluted only 18 times in 113 games.
The much-maligned Richmond has managed 43 wins from its past 135 games—15 more than Carlton.
Port Adelaide has won a whopping 95 of 135—67 more.
Yes, Blues fans, it is that bad.
Using the same 135-game block as a framework, not many teams in history have endured worse runs than the Blues since they lost to Richmond in the 2001 finals.
Carlton is in the midst of the driest patch since St Kilda, up until Round 18 1987, won just 27 of its previous 135 games.
Other clubs to win just 27 of 135 are North Melbourne (up to 1941), Hawthorn (up to 1954) and Fitzroy (up to 1970).
It would have once been unthinkable for Carlton to be keeping such company.

 

[tonk]

Thanks for reminding me about the Swans in the early 90s, ouch. I remember one game against Fitzroy at the S.C.G. it was raining, they flogged us, they said there were 4500 people there, I reckon there was about 1500. However the day we beat Melbourne at the S.C.G. to break our 26 [I think] game losing streak was one of the greatest days I have ever had at the footy. Swans 93 for me.

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

Carlton only won 1 game in 2006???? Who'd they beat?

 

[WN123]

Carlton won 3 in 2006.

 

[mianfei]

If you take into consideration how much they were paying their players, Carlton 2006 is clearly the worst.

That is probably true, even more though the 2002 Blues, which would rank as clearly their worst team since 1919. Apart from a win against runners-up Collingwood in the wet in Round 3, their two other wins were by two points and one point - though they did get close to beating Geelong and West Coast when those teams were not playing badly.

However, on results those Carlton sides cannot compete with Fitzroy in 1966 or 1996, nor with the Swans of 1992 and 1993 or St. Kilda in 1955 or Hawthorn in 1950 or North Melbourne from 1929 to 1931. It’s striking to note the different cultural problems that account for the extreme financial poverty of all those clubs:

1. with Fitzroy it was immigration of southern Europeans who preferred soccer and the exodus of its former support base to the suburbs
2. with Hawthorn and St. Kilda it was a culture of marianismo that preferred noncompetitive, non-contact sports
   • it’s notable how business and political patrons in Hawthorn’s catchment, even after the club finally ceased being a chopping block still supported other clubs like Carlton, Essendon or Melbourne. It was the total absence of this sort of support that made Hawthorn and St. Kilda so weak.
3. with Sydney it was a more densely-populated land that preferred rugby league which requires less space
4. with North Melbourne it was a glutted market too close to Essendon and Footscray

I agree with some of the earlier posters; some of the worst teams actually avoided the wooden spoon. Carlton's 2003 team & the West Coast sides of 2001 & 2008 did not finish last but deserved to given their effort, or the lack of it, during the year.

That’s correct. Even when Fremantle were headed for 0-22 the newspapers noted how much worse West Coast were playing in most games. Fremantle during 2001 competed very well in their early games and were in a position to win all of their first six, whereas the Eagles were thrashed in almost every loss.

 

[KeilorUnder9s]

Correct, I was expecting to see Essendon figure many times in this list. Amazing.

Of course you were because everything on the internet footy related is based around Essendon

 

[Slattery_20]

mianfei is the king of the 4-year-old bump.

 

[Dazb86]

Fitzroy in 96.

Surprised they got a win TBH.

 

[Bluelegs]

I was going to say Fitzroy but every year there's another team that's apparently worse than them.

 

[ep2018]

Even if GC dont win a game this year, injuries have torn apart their season.

 

[Clay Davis]

mianfei is the king of the 4-year-old bump.

Always interesting, though.

 

[Kram]

From what I've seen it's hard to go past Fitzroy 96 and yes I know we were the only team to lose to them that year.

 

[bluemarq]

I thought Carlton of 2003 were pretty bad. So bad, they couldn't even win the spoon.

Easily the worst team to finish 2nd last that I can remember.

Yep - even during " that period" (and the period 2002 - 07 is for Carlton fans what 1939 -45 is to Germans - something that one doesn't talk about) , 2003 especially stands out for how utterly wretched we were. We were easily an 8-10 goal worse team than the Bulldogs that year.

The worst team is Fitzroy 1996. But Carlton's second half of the 2003 season runs them a very close second.

 

[Dirty Bird]

Freo always manages the impossible

They havn't managed a premiership yet....

 

[bluemarq]

That’s correct. Even when Fremantle were headed for 0-22 the newspapers noted how much worse West Coast were playing in most games. Fremantle during 2001 competed very well in their early games and were in a position to win all of their first six, whereas the Eagles were thrashed in almost every loss.

Freo's 2001 season is arguably the most remarkable season by a team in the history of the modern game.

As the late, great Matt Price once remarked : "There are a thousand and one ways to lose a game of footy - and in 2001, Freo managed them all".

They got thrashed from siren to siren , they got pipped at the post, they started well and squandered huge leads, they started poorly and just fell short during big comebacks, they got comfortably outclassed by 6 or 7 goals, they got robbed by the umpires (Even as a Carlton fan, I'll admit the umpires gave us our Round 1 victory of the Dockers) and lost games due to inaccuracy against opponents they outplayed.


Just a stunning season

 

[manicmagpie]

Our percentage was bloody good for 4 wins.

But worst team would be 95/96 no one really wanted to be there, or evenb sydney 92/93/94

Useless stat of the day: Collingwood in 1999 the only team in the last 50 years to win the spoon without losing any games by 10 goals or more. Only done two other times in the last 80 seasons as well.

In 1999, only North (Premiers) and Brisbane (3rd) also managed not to lose at least one game by 10 goals.

Reinforces what I've always said about the Pies in '99. Saved all our best efforts for teams that were simply too good for us anyway (result: narrow or comfortable loss) and then when faced with other ordinary teams put in shocking performances (result: narrow or comfortable loss).

 

[cammo78]

Anyone who says anything other than Fitzroy in '96 isn't old enough to remember it.

Those poor, poor bastards and the 5k or so staunch people who were showing up at Western Oval.

Hung out to dry by Ross "my legacy" Oakley.

Sydney in 93 until Barassi took over were also woefully ordinary.