NRL's top three wooden-spoon contenders after Round 5

The NRL season is in full swing and three teams that have been slow to start have the best chance of claiming the wooden spoon at season’s end.

3. Canterbury Bulldogs
Although the Bulldogs were one of the most-hyped teams over the off-season, they have failed to deliver, winning just one of their first five matches.

Many thought they would make their way out of the bottom three and possibly even play finals footy (for the record, I agreed with the first half of that sentence).

Despite the Doggies’ good patches, it’s a tight, two-point Round 1 win against the Cowboys that has them avoiding being winless.

Canterbury have continued to be partly stubborn in attack and their defence hasn’t improved much from 2021 as they have conceded the second-greatest number of points in 2022.

However, they have improved, so of each struggling team, it’s the Bankstown boys I have the highest hopes to dig themselves out.

2. St George Illawarra Dragons
I’m not full convinced the Dragons have realised the season has begun. I understand that we are just five weeks into the competition, however I find It really hard to figure out how they can turn this 1-4 start into a finals-calibre record.

Their defence has been absolutely atrocious, conceding the most points in total. The Dragons have rarely competed, and their only win was on the Sunshine Coast against the Warriors in Round 1. Since then, they have lost four straight games, including a 24-point defeat to the Sharks and a 48-14 beating at the hands of Paramatta.

Their most recent loss came against the Bunnies, a performance that had a total of 17 errors next to their name, which is unacceptable.

The Red V’s next match is against Newcastle on Sunday afternoon, which is a must-win match as the Knights are a team they can beat.

If you want to play September footy of late, you must win at least half your 24 games, so if the Dragons suffer another defeat, they would likely need to win 11 of their last 18 games.

Tyrell Sloan of the Dragons. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

1. Wests Tigers
The Tigers’ season has started as a nightmare and a half.

Currently sitting as the only winless side, the Balmain boys don’t look like breaking their finals drought any time soon.

Their most recent outing summed up their season, being torn apart by the Sharks and lucky to not have more than 30 points conceded.

There is no excuse for this start and you can’t argue that they haven’t been winning because of the teams they’ve taken on – the only side they have played from last year’s top four is the Melbourne Storm, which surprisingly is the match that they performed best in.

On the positive side, Jackson Hastings seems to be a good buy, as a great controller of the side. However it’s impossible for even the greatest player to control a side when most perform to the ability of under-14s.

The other two players that I have been impressed with are Luciano Leilua and Kelma Tuilagi, who both have great running and off-loading ability, and Tuilagi can snap a bloke in half.

Tyrone Peachey needs to be bought into the starting halves and Luke Brooks should spend some time on the bench, as he is dreadful in attack and one of the most over-payed and overrated players in the league.

The Tigers are always changing their roster and gameplan to comfort Brooks. Right now, he is nowhere near good enough to be having the side evolve around him and Peachey will bring the spark needed in the starting side.

The ‘blame the coach’ trend has continued, but the roster is poor. However, the goal is to show 100 per cent effort and execute your game plan, which the Tigers simply can’t do.

I don’t see a season turnaround, which is why I have them as the most likely team to win the 2022 wooden spoon.