Four sides set to battle out this year's wooden spoon

Just seven days ago I wrote about the clashes of the four teams which I thought were far and above the best of the competition – Fremantle, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Sydney.

Despite the surprise loss by the Swans to an improving Western Bulldogs outfit, Collingwood moving to second spot on the ladder with their fourth win from five starts, and the West Coast brutalising the Greater Western Sydney Giants in Perth, I still feel quite comfortable with the quartet I announced last week.

But this week I thought I’d look at the other end of the ladder.

While there might be some debate from their respective supporters, and while sometimes ladder positions bely the real ability of some teams, the four teams which currently sit in 18th, 17th, 16th and 15th places are clearly the worst teams in the competition.

Brisbane
Who will they beat this season? I thought they were a chance last Saturday against another struggler, the Suns, but they helped make the Suns look like top-eight candidates, and the at the moment the Gold Coast are anything but that.

The Lions are embarrassing at the moment. Since a solid first-up two-goal loss to the Magpies, the Lions have been beaten by an average of 70 points, punctuated by that 10 goal loss to the previously winless Gold Coast on Saturday.

The Lions have nothing at the moment, and I’m hardly surprised their coach questioned their work rate and desire after the weekend’s performance – plenty of members would be questioning exactly that, and their decision to purchase a season ticket.

In five rounds they have won just one quarter of football, that coming in Round 1 when they scored more than Collingwood – 4.2 to 0.3 – in the final term of a game already effectively gone.

The way they have played during the first month, I honestly can’t see them beating anyone. Surely they will, but it will take a much improved effort, and regardless I can’t see them taking too many steps up the ladder all season.

Carlton
Wow! I thought that after three disappointing performances they had turned it around with their come-from-well-back win over the Saints last week, but, with so much to play for in Mick Malthouse’s record breaking game… nothing.

Again, don’t trust me, Mick himself said he thought their work effort was “very, very poor”. He couldn’t have added a couple more verys in that description.

Having said that, they are still a few steps ahead of Brisbane, and that will be confirmed when the two meet next weekend at Etihad.

St Kilda
While the Saints have only that one win – over the Gold Coast in Round 2 – they have also performed well in two of the other four matches, notably yesterday against Essendon when they could have, and probably should have, got the four competition points.

The Saints aren’t the worst, and I’d back them against the Lions, but they are still quite a long way away from being near the top eight.

Gold Coast
The Suns were expected to be challenging for the eight this season, but at the moment the only thing they will be contesting is for the wooden spoon, a trophy likely to be headed to Queensland, but a bit further north than the Coast.

The big signing of Nick Malceski this season had the Suns looking like they would again take another step, but it just hasn’t worked out. With Gary Ablett struggling with injuries there is a great uncertainty about the Gold Coast each week.

The Suns look far less enthusiastic and far less hungry than in recent years.

This quartet are the bottom four and I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if that’s where they stay.

Some will suggest maybe Melbourne could end up in there, but the Dees have shown so much more this season, and have lost three games, each to an unbeaten side at the time.

Before they were humbled in Perth, nobody could question GWS’s commitment, and there was more talk about them finishing in the eight than the bottom four.

There are obviously 10 teams between last week’s top four and this week’s bottom four, and in coming weeks they will gravitate towards where they will end up – fighting for a top-eight berth, or simply trying to win as many games as they can without threatening either the top of the bottom of the ladder.

There’s a long way to go, and many twists and turns still to come, but as for the bottom four, while not set in concrete, they are sitting in quicksand, slowly sinking.