When the last winless AFL team wins

As I have looked at the broader perspective of winless seasons - a terrifying but rare sight on top-level team sport - I have wanted to have a look at when actually the last winless team in each AFL season has actually managed to win.

Here I will provide statistics only about when exactly the last winless AFL club won its first game, and when each date for this occurrence last happened.

Last winless club won in	# of seasons	Most recent year of occurrence
Game #2	NEVER
Game #3	8	Four clubs in 1997
Game #4	14	Melbourne and Richmond in 2006
Game #5	16	Fremantle and Richmond in 2009
Game #6	14	Western Bulldogs in 2002
Game #7	12	Melbourne in 2008
Game #8	9	Brisbane in 2011
Game #9	5	St. Kilda in 1983
Game #10	5	Richmond in 2010
Game #11	3	St. Kilda in 2000
Game #12	4	Richmond in 2007
Game #13	2	St. Kilda in 1986
Game #14	3	South Melbourne in 1973
Game #15	4	Gold Coast in 2012
Game #16	1	North Melbourne in 1935
Game #17	1	North Melbourne in 1972
Game #18	2	Fremantle in 2001
Game #19	NEVER
Game #20	NEVER
Game #21	NEVER
Game #22	NEVER
Never Won A Game	13	Fitzroy in 1964

Some notable facts that can be drawn from the table above are:

1. The most common date for the last winless side to win in VFL/AFL history has been the fourth or fifth game
2. The median date for the last winless side to win over all VFL/AFL history is in its seventh game; though since the expansion in 2011 it has not yet occurred that all clubs have won after seven games.
3. Nine of thirty-three teams winless after ten games played more than nineteen games, which suggests a team would have to be winless for fourteen games to have an even chance of finishing 0-22 under a present schedule. Only three teams have been winless after fourteen games since 1968.

Also worth looking at before I tabulate the last winless side in each AFL season, is how often each competing club has been the last to win since it entered the league:

Club	# of years as last winless club	Most recent year as last winless club	% of years competing
Adelaide	1	2004	4.54
Brisbane	4	2011	15.38
Carlton	5	1997	4.31
Collingwood	8	1999	6.90
Essendon	NEVER		0.00
Fitzroy	12	1996	12.00
Footscray/Western Bulldogs	9	2002	10.23
Fremantle	2	2009	11.11
Geelong	12	2003	10.62
Gold Coast	1	2012	50.00
Greater Western Sydney	NEVER		0.00
Hawthorn	12	2005	13.63
Melbourne	12	2008	10.61
North Melbourne	10	1972	11.37
Port Adelaide	1	1997	6.25
Richmond	9	2010	8.57
South Melbourne/Sydney	15	1997	13.04
St. Kilda	20	2000	17.54
University	2	1914	28.57
West Coast	NEVER		0.00

It is an amazing feat that in one hundred and fourteen years of VFL and AFL football Essendon have never been the last or even equal-last winless team, although they were wooden spooners in 1907, 1918, 1921 and 1933. In all those four years except 1921 the last winless club had won after five rounds. In 2006 - their worst year since 1933 - all clubs had won after four weeks whilst the Bombers looked like achieving the unwanted and unprecedented ignominy of winning their opener against the reigning premier and losing every subsequent game, something not seen since 1901.

Below is a table of the number of times and most recent time each club has been the victim of the last winless side remaining in the AFL.

Club	# of years losing to last winless club	Most recent year losing to last winless club	% of years competing
Adelaide	1	1997	4.54
Brisbane	3	2006	15.38
Carlton	9	2002	7.76
Collingwood	4	1997	3.45
Essendon	8	1982	7.02
Fitzroy	13	1990	13.00
Footscray/Western Bulldogs	10	1995	11.36
Fremantle	3	2008	16.67
Geelong	10	1997	8.85
Gold Coast	NEVER		0.00
Greater Western Sydney	NEVER		0.00
Hawthorn	9	2001	10.23
Melbourne	12	2007	10.62
North Melbourne	7	2011	7.95
Port Adelaide	2	2010	13.50
Richmond	11	2012	10.48
South Melbourne/Sydney	11	2009	9.57
St. Kilda	7	1988	6.14
University	2	1911	28.57
West Coast	NEVER		0.00

It is notable that West Coast have never been either the last winless club or the team who lost to the last winless club. Even in 1989, Carlton took a week longer to win. When Fremantle looked like an 0-and-22 season in 2001, people seemed not to consider the local derby in Round Nineteen as a possible win, though it was the most logical candidate after they failed against St. Kilda in their thirteenth game. Perhaps the Eagles would have doomed the Dockers to 0-and-22 and the first 0-19 start had they not beaten Hawthorn?