Canterbury Bulldogs and St George Illawarra Dragons only need to maintain their current ladder positions to snap eight- and six-year NRL finals absences, respectively.
At the other end of the scale, Wests Tigers are almost certain to extend their playoffs drought to a 13th season – an NRL era record.
But what is the longest each fanbase has had to endure without their team featuring in the post-season?
*Indicates streak is currently active
Brisbane Broncos – 3 seasons (2020-22)
It’s not exactly the most arduous period in terms of length – but for a club that demands success as a matter of course, the Broncos’ three-year absence from the finals was a harrowing time.
Following Wayne Bennett’s soap opera role swap with Souths coach Anthony Seibold at the end of 2018, the Rabbitohs remained a heavyweight while the Broncos scraped into the playoffs in 2019.
Little over half a season later, Seibold was gone and the Broncos collected the first-ever wooden spoon – an inconceivable prospect at any other point in their history.
Kevin Walters could only get the club to 14th in 2021, while a staggering late-season fadeout – losing five of their last six – consigned the Broncos to ninth in 2022.
However a top-two finish and a grand final appearance followed in 2023.
Canberra Raiders – 5 seasons (1982-86)
The Raiders were among the premiership’s whipping boys during their first five seasons after entering the NSWRL competition in 1982, though reaching a playoff for fifth in 1984 was a notable achievement.
The club recruited Queenslanders Mal Meninga, Gary Belcher and Steve Walters in 1986, with Peter Jackson and new co-coach Wayne Bennett following in 1987 – the start of a 10-season period that garnered nine finals appearances, five grand finals and three premierships.
The Raiders’ longest finals drought since was just three seasons (2013-15), while they have remarkably missed out in back-to-back years on just one other occasion (2017-18).
Canterbury Bulldogs – 12 seasons (1948-59)
The club’s current streak has been painful, but it’s still well short of the longest finals absence in Canterbury-Bankstown’s history.
The Berries went more than a decade without seeing any finals action.
They avoided the wooden spoon during that period but finished second-last four times in five years before finishing in a crazy four-way tie for second in 1960 that forced an elaborate series of playoffs.
Canterbury returned to the doldrums for the next six years, then stormed into the grand final after ending St George’s 11-season reign in the prelim.
The Bulldogs’ worst drought subsequent until the present one was four seasons (1989-93).
They also have the dubious distinction of missing the finals the year after winning each of their last three premierships.
Cronulla Sharks – 6 seasons (twice – 1967-72 and 1982-87)
Cronulla-Sutherland landed two wooden spoons in its first three seasons and failed to place better than seventh in the 12-team premiership from 1967-72.
But the Sharks made it count when they broke through for a finals appearance, reaching a notoriously violent grand final that they lost to Manly.
The club was on the ropes financially in the mid-1980s and endured another six-season finals absence that a three-year stint with Jack Gibson as coach couldn’t break.
Since then, a three-year run was the Sharks’ worst (2009-11) and they have made it eight times in the last nine years.
Dolphins – 1 season (2023)*
The Dolphins produced a more than respectable debut season in the NRL, spending 13 of the first 14 weeks of the competition inside the Top 8 before losing nine of their last 11 and finishing 13th.
The fledgling outfit is on track to earn a momentous sophomore-campaign finals appearance, though a recent 1-4 run has brought the Dolphins back into the mid-table logjam.
Gold Coast Titans – 5 seasons (2011-15)
Despite some harrowing lows on and off the field during a rollercoaster 18-season existence, the Titans’ longest finals absence is a comparatively modest five seasons.
After back-to-back top-four finishes in 2009-10 – including a prelim in the latter campaign – the Titans sank to last in 2011, while the ensuing seasons saw the club plummeting into financial strife, part with foundation coach John Cartwright and watch marquee recruit infamously backflip on a contract.
But Neil Henry steered the club to an unlikely finals appearance in 2016 with rookie halfback Ashley Taylor, and midseason recruits Konrad Hurrell and Jarryd Hayne playing key roles.
The Titans have qualified just once since, in 2021, and are on their way to a third straight bottom-four season in 2024.
The inaugural, perennially troubled Gold Coast franchise made the finals just once during its 11-season existence, during the 1997 ARL competition.
The Chargers folded a year later.
Manly Sea Eagles – 4 seasons (twice – 1947-50 and 1962-65)
As well as being one of the few clubs to avoid the wooden spoon throughout its history, Manly’s longest finals drought was just two blocks of four years – both in the first two decades of its existence after gaining admission in 1947.
The Sea Eagles missed out in their first four seasons before reaching the 1951 grand final.
In the past 60 years, they have failed to qualify in three straight years just once – bookending the ill-fated Northern Eagles joint venture (1999 and 2003-04).
Manly has finished outside the Top 8 for two years running, however, and is in the thick of the midtable logjam in 2024.
Melbourne Storm – 2 seasons (2001-02)
Melbourne has missed the finals just three times in its 27 seasons: in Mark Murray’s two seasons at the helm (2001-02, with Chris Anderson walking out on the club early in the former year) and in 2010, when the Storm were prevented from playing for points as punishment for salary cap breaches.
Must be nice…
Newcastle Knights – 6 seasons (2014-19)
The Knights qualified for the finals for the first time in 1992, their fifth season, and endured no more than a two-year absence for the next two decades.
But the post-Wayne Bennett era was a trainwreck for Newcastle and a six-year finals drought included a hat-trick of wooden spoons.
Adam O’Brien led the Knights to the Top 8 as a rookie NRL coach in 2020 after Nathan Brown failed with an impressive roster in 2018-19.
New Zealand Warriors – 6 seasons (twice – 1995-2000 and 2012-17)
The Warriors’ 30-season history is littered with multiple false dawns and periods of chronic underachievement.
After missing the playoffs in their 1995 foundation season on for-and-against (and following the deduction of two points for fielding an illegal replacement), it took until 2001 for the Warriors to make their finals debut.
The club qualified for the post-season for the seventh time in 11 years and made the Grand Final in 2011, but Brian McLennan, Matthew Elliott and Andrew McFadden all came and went before Stephen Kearney guided the Warriors back to a Top 8 finish in his second year at the helm in 2018.
North Queensland Cowboys – 9 seasons (1995-2003)
Entering the competition alongside the Warriors in 1995, the Cowboys had to wait another three years longer to make the finals for the first time – collecting three wooden spoons along the way.
Since that breakthrough, the Cowboys’ longest drought was in the wake of their remarkable run to the 2017 grand final from eighth position (their seventh consecutive season reaching the finals) – finishing bottom-four from 2018-21.
Parramatta Eels – 15 seasons (1947-61)
On course to extend its premiership drought to a 38th season, Parramatta’s longest absence from the finals was at the start of its tenure in the NSWRL competition.
The Eels landed nine wooden spoons in their first 15 seasons, including a record six in a row from 1956-61 – a streak that preceded four straight years making the finals.
Parramatta’s two longest absences since came directly after grand final appearances: 10 seasons (1987-96) following the end of the golden era that garnered four titles in six years, and seven seasons (2011-17) after their memorable rally to make the 2009 decider.
Penrith Panthers – 18 seasons (1967-84)
Penrith’s agonising wait for a breakthrough finals appearance represents the longest post-season drought in premiership history.
The ‘Chocolate Soldiers’ had to wait until their 19th season before reaching the 1985 finals under Tim Sheens, beating Manly in playoff for fifth.
After winning the 1991 premiership, the Panthers succumbed to a five-year absence from finals footy that was repeated soon after their next title in 2003, missing out from 2005-09.
Chasing the first run of four straight grand final wins in almost 60 years in 2024, the Panthers are set to feature in the finals for the ninth time in 11 years.
South Sydney Rabbitohs – 15 seasons (1990-2006)
‘The Pride of the League’ was unaccustomed to being in the doldrums for any length of time – their longest finals drought for their first eight decades was a seven-season spell from 1958-64, before embarking on another golden era.
The Rabbitohs made the finals four times in six years during the 1980s, culminating in the 1989 minor premiership.
But a dramatic slide to wooden spoon status heralded the cash-strapped club’s long-term decline, which encompassed its axing from the NRL from the 2000-01 seasons.
Reinstatement took some time to restore Souths to its former glory, finally making the Top 8 in 2007 after the club’s controversial privatisation.
The Rabbitohs have made the playoffs in nine of the past 12 seasons.
St George Illawarra Dragons – 5 seasons (2019-23)*
The NRL’s first joint venture (1999) became an immediate heavyweight and only missed the finals in one-year intervals until Wayne Bennett’s departure at the end of 2011, sparking a three-year absence.
The Dragons are currently on their longest drought since the merger, aiming to avoid a sixth straight September holiday courtesy of Shane Flanagan’s revitalising tutelage.
Sydney Roosters – 8 seasons (1988-95)
The only team to feature in every premiership season, the Roosters gained an unwanted ‘transit lounge’ reputation for much of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s.
From 1983-95, their only finals appearance was in 1987 during Arthur Beetson’s stint as coach – but it was a swift decent from that point.
Phil Gould’s arrival in 1995 helped turn the club around and they made the finals in nine straight years from 1996-2004.
Since then, a three-season drought (2005-07) has been the Roosters’ worst, while they shape a near certainty to make the Top 8 for the 11th time in Trent Robinson’s 12-season tenure.
Wests Tigers – 12 seasons (2012-23)*
Since Balmain and Western Suburbs merged in 2000, Wests Tigers have made the finals just three times: 2005, when the club surged to one of the most unlikely premiership triumphs of all time, and in 2010-11.
The wretched Tigers are heading for a 13th straight season without making the Top 8 – and potentially a third consecutive wooden spoon, after sidestepping the unwanted prize in their first 22 campaigns.
The extinct clubs
Balmain Tigers – 9 seasons (1991-99): One of the strongest clubs of the 1980s – culminating in back-to-back grand final losses in 1988-89 – the foundation club missed the playoffs in each of its last nine seasons before merging with Western Suburbs.
Illawarra Steelers – 10 seasons (1982-91): The Steelers struggled for success in their first decade, picking up three wooden spoons and finishing no better than eighth. They came of age under Graham Murray in 1992 but a projected golden era failed to material and the club made the finals just once more – in the 1997 ARL competition – before merging with St George in 1999.
Newtown Jets – 7 seasons (1974-80): After ending a six-season finals absence under Jack Gibson in 1973, Newtown was the premiership’s whipping boy alongside Penrith and Norths – winning three straight wooden spoons from 1976-78 – before a remarkable charge to the 1981 grand final. The Jets were axed from the competition just two years later.
North Sydney Bears – 16 seasons (1966-81): The hapless Bears, who still hold the record for the longest premiership drought in history at 77 seasons, had several lengthy periods without finals footy. Norths only landed the spoon once from 1966-81 but finished second-last on another five occasions and did better than seventh in the 12-team comp just once.
St George Dragons – 6 seasons (1986-91): One of the most regularly successful clubs during 78 seasons as a standalone entity, the Saints’ leanest period came directly after losing the 1985 grand final, while they snapped the playoffs drought with another appearance in the premiership decider in 1992.
Western Suburbs – 10 seasons (1964-73): Dubbed ‘The Millionaires’ after luring talent from the country, Queensland and other clubs, the Magpies made three straight grand finals from 1961-63 before enduring a lean decade.