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Battle for wooden spoon a cliffhanger

Have we had a season in recent memory where so many teams have a claim to being the eventual wooden spooners?

There are always strugglers in every season but there is usually a standout or at most two of them.

With the draft system the way it is we could see the football world focusing much attention on the cellar dwellers towards the end of the season as they battle it out for final placings.

Melbourne have been considered favourites for the spoon since early on in the season but they are being strongly challenged by our local teams.

Adding fuel to the fire was Melbourne’s inspiring win against Brisbane yesterday.

The game was a reminder of why we love football as the luckless demons got up and beat a formidable opponent at the death.

If you had told most experts in the pre-season that Fremantle, West Coast and Melbourne would have six wins between them more than halfway through the season they would have been shocked.

This however is the predicament they’re in and therefore the bottom of the ladder has become quite clogged.

Essendon and Richmond probably now have too many wins to seriously challenge but don’t rule out Port Adelaide, the year’s other big disappointment.

Mark Williams has already declared their season over and promised to “assess the list”, a shocking fall from grace for last year’s grand finalists.

Last week Williams left out Peter Burgoyne, Chad Cornes and Brendon Lade through a combination of form and injury and Port were thrashed by the Bulldogs.

If he continues to manage his list in this way we could see the Power slide down the ladder rapidly.

Despite this Melbourne are still the frontrunners to finish last and they certainly have the worst list.

West Coast are next in line because of the thrashings they have received in recent times.

On Friday night they played an undermanned Hawthorn side who also lost some runners during the match.

Hawthorn were no where near their best but they still managed to thrash the hapless Eagles.

West Coast are struggling to be competitive in games particularly away from home and if they continue to play the way they are they could well end up with the number one pick in the draft.

Extraordinarily Fremantle have won the same number of games as both their spoon rivals but they have over 30 more percentage points than the other two teams.

Yesterday they were genuinely brave down to one man on the bench after already being decimated by injury and suspension pre game.

This however will be cold comfort for Fremantle fans who once again saw their side squander numerous chances to claim their third win against an ordinary side.

Skills errors and shots on goal continue to be missed and it is the same old suspects.

Once again the young players shone and put many of the senior players to shame.

Josh Carr improved a little bit towards the end of the game and he needs to if he is going to be part of Fremantle’s future.

Pavlich was magnificent again but after a season filled with near misses Fremantle will feel even more that the prime of their captain’s career is being wasted.

Prediction: Melbourne for wooden spoon followed by West Coast, Fremantle and Port Adelaid respectively.