While each of their 16 rivals has at least two wins on the board after six rounds, Wests Tigers head into the Round 7 bye anchored to the bottom of the ladder and 0-6 – the worst start in the joint venture’s 24-season history.
After collecting a maiden wooden spoon in 2022, the return of the club’s premiership coach Tim Sheens, along with ’05 heroes Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah as his assistants and a clutch of blue-chip recruits, was supposed to spark an attacking renaissance and a climb up the NRL ladder.
The reality has been painfully different, the Tigers ranking last in the NRL for points scored (15 per game) and conceded (26.7).
Then there’s the demotion of their star fullback and 2021 Player of the Year, the perennial underperformance of their $1 million halfback, the Anzac jersey gaffe, and now a devastating season-ending injury to their most constructive player, Adam Doueihi.
It’s been a horror show in Tigertown and one more loss will represent the first 0-7 start in the NRL in 18 years – but where does it stack up against the most disastrous starts to a campaign among all clubs?
BRISBANE BRONCOS
The 1999 Broncos endured arguably the worst start to a premiership defence in the competition’s history.
The star-studded winners of four titles in the previous seven seasons lost their first five games and had only one win and one draw on the board after 10 rounds, by which stage captain and linchpin Allan Langer had announced his shock retirement.
Remarkably, the Broncos then went on an 11-match winning streak to squeak into the finals, where they were promptly despatched by minor premier Cronulla. But the revival after a diabolical opening two months holds a cherished place in the clubs’ narrative.
The Broncos’ next-longest losing streak to start a campaign was also as the reigning NRL champs, going 0-3 in 2007 – and again rallying to finish eighth.
CANBERRA RAIDERS
We have to go all the way back to the Raiders’ inaugural 1982 campaign for their worst start, when they lost their first seven games in existence – culminating in a 54-3 loss to defending premier Parramatta.
After nabbing a historic 12-11 win over Newtown in Round 8, the Don Furner-coached Raiders lost another six in a row and ultimately finished with a debut-season wooden spoon.
Canberra lost its first four games under Mal Meninga in the 1997 Super League season and also went 0-4 in 2018.
CANTERBURY BULLDOGS
The Bulldogs went 0-6 in 2021 after Trent Barrett took the reins, eventually landing the spoon with a 3-21 record.
It was the club’s worst start since 1964, when the Clive Churchill-coached Berries lost their first seven games and had just one draw on the board after 13 rounds. Canterbury finished last with a 1-1-16 record but played in a grand final just the years later – against Churchill’s Rabbitohs.
Canterbury-Bankstown’s foundation 1935 seasons garnered an 0-6 start, including the two biggest defeats in premiership history: 91-6 against St George and 87-7 to Easts a week later before banking a maiden win, 21-2 over University.
CRONULLA SHARKS
Still in its infancy, Cronulla went 0-7 to start the 1969 season. The Ken ‘Killer’ Kearney-coached outfit mustered five wins but still finished with the club’s last wooden spoon until 2014.
Meanwhile, a six-match losing streak to kick off 2003 was the beginning of the end for Chris Anderson at the club. The Sharks’ worst start since was going 0-4 in 2015 – a season in which they reached the finals.
The 2009 Sharks deserve a mention: Ricky Stuart’s side won in Round 1 before losing nine straight and only avoided the spoon on points differential.
GOLD COAST TITANS
Somewhat surprisingly for a club that has endured an at-times rocky 17-season existence, the Titans’ worst start was 0-4 in 2019. In fact, it wasn’t until their fifth season that the Titans had a losing record after seven rounds.
The perennially embattled Gold Coast club of 1988-98 also managed to largely avoid long season-opening losing streaks.
The Giants/Seagulls/Chargers’ worst was 0-5 under Wally Lewis in 1993 (a year where they won just one game), while they had to wait until the 10th game of their debut season to jag a win but had managed a draw in Round 2.
MANLY SEA EAGLES
Manly-Warringah began its 1947 premiership introduction 0-7 – a club record that went unmatched until 1999, when the perennial heavyweights lost their first seven games.
Club icon Bob Fulton subsequently called time on a glittering coaching career and Peter Sharp steered them to nine wins and a draw in their remaining 17 games.
The Sea Eagles have started 0-4 twice since: as defending premiers in 2009 before recovering to finish fifth; and in 2021 before storming into the top four and a preliminary final.
MELBOURNE STORM
Unsurprisingly for a club that has finished with a losing record just twice in its quarter-century history (and has won its first game for the past 19 years), Melbourne’s tale of early-season pain is a short and relatively tame one.
But the Storm’s 0-4 start to their premiership defence in 2000 was big news at the time, given they lost to three non-finalists from the previous season. They snapped the run of losses with a famous 70-10 obliteration of the Dragons and went on to finish sixth.
NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Newcastle can lay claim to the worst start to a campaign of the NRL era – and the longest season-opening losing streak since Eastern Suburbs’ winless campaign of 1966.
The 2005 Knights, beset by injuries, lost their first 13 games…including three in a row by four points following Andrew Johns’ broken jaw.
Though they would collect their first wooden spoon, there was a relatively happy ending: the Knights won eight of their last 11 to set a new record for the most wins by a last-placed team, while ‘Joey’ finished one point off the Dally M Medal despite playing a mere 16 games.
NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
Somewhat amazingly for a perpetually enigmatic club with a reputation for underachievement and poor starts, the Warriors have never begun a campaign worse than 0-3.
They’ve done that three times: in 2011, when they went on to make the grand final in Ivan Cleary’s last season; in 2013 in Matt Elliott’s first three games, preceding an incredible giant-killing mid-season run; and in 2016 with the club slow out of the blocks despite Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s and Issac Luke’s arrival.
Paradoxically, the Warriors’ 4-2 renaissance to start 2023 is just the sixth time in 29 seasons they’ve had a winning record after six rounds.
NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS
North Queensland was a premiership whipping boy for much of its early existence and the club’s worst start still belongs to its foundation team. The ’95 Cowboys went 0-7 before upsetting Illawarra in Wollongong. They finished 2-20 to collect the wooden spoon in a canter.
The Cowboys went 0-5 in 1999, an 0-4 start to 2002 brought the axe down on coach Murray Hurst, while an 0-3 start was a precursor to their maiden premiership in 2015.
PARRAMATTA EELS
Parramatta’s arduous first decade and a half in the premiership garnered nine wooden spoons – and some of the worst starts in the competition’s history.
The Eels lost the first eight games of their 1947 foundation season; managed only a draw from their first 11 games of their sophomore campaign; went 0-9 in 1952; kicked off with eight straight losses in 1958; and went down in their opening 10 games in 1960.
Confirmation of the bitter end of the Eels’ 1980s golden era arrived in 1991 courtesy of an 0-7 start, while they went 0-6 in 2018 on the way to a wooden spoon.
PENRITH PANTHERS
Another club with some dark days during its formative eras, Penrith’s early-season narrative since 1967 is largely free of atrocities.
In the Panthers’ first 35 seasons, they never fared worse than 0-5 – which they did in 1978 and ’80, though the later streak was only interrupted by a draw and their first win did not arrive until Round 9.
An unwanted club-record 0-8 start to John Lang’s tenure in 2002 belied the premiership glory that awaited 18 months later, while the Panthers have not lost more than their first two games since.
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS
The joint venture has never lost more than its first four games in a season. The first time, in 2005, they only missed out on the minor premiership on for-and-against.
Paul McGregor enjoyed some strong early-season runs in his chequered tenure that ultimately fell into the flatter-to-deceive department, but an 0-4 start to 2020 was a harbinger of his belated mid-season demise.
St George lost its first six games in 1922, the club’s second season in the premiership, while Illawarra Steelers went 0-8 on their way to the 1989 wooden spoon.
SOUTH SYDNEY RABBITOHS
It doesn’t get any worse than losing every game, which is exactly what South Sydney did in the 14-round 1946 premiership – having won just one game the previous season.
‘The Pride of the League’s’ next-worst starts came in the 1990s and 2000s. The Rabbitohs went 0-8 in 1996 (with an average score conceded of 34.8), lost their first 12 games on the way to the 2006 spoon – one loss shy of the worst start of the NRL era – and went 0-7 in 2008.
SYDNEY ROOSTERS
The danger signs were there at Eastern Suburbs when Englishman Bert Holcroft took over as coach in 1965, the club going 0-7 and winning just three games. The following season, Easts lost all 18 games in a campaign that lives on in rugby league infamy.
The Tricolours lost by less than a converted try just once and endured a club-record 53-0 loss to Manly. In 1967 an untried coach named Jack Gibson came on-board and steered Easts to their first finals series in seven years.
Since then, 0-5 starts during Chris Anderson’s brief 2007 tenure and in 2016, the only time in Trent Robinson’s reign the Roosters have missed the finals, are the club’s worst.
WESTS TIGERS
The Tigers’ previous worst start of 0-5 in 2022 was eclipsed on Easter Monday, a somewhat unlucky 28-22 defeat to Parramatta their sixth from as many games.
The streak has been largely free of one-off embarrassments – a 46-12 defeat to the Broncos in Round 5 was their only loss by 13+, while three were by a converted try or less – but one more loss will represent the first 0-7 start since Newcastle opened the 2005 season with 13 straight defeats.
Balmain went 0-7 in 1952, 0-8 in 1974 and managed just one draw in the first eight rounds of 1991 after Alan Jones took the coaching reins.
Western Suburbs’ worst start in 92 seasons was in the 1908 foundation year, losing their first seven games. The 1971 Magpies lost 11 straight after grabbing a Round 1 victory.