When St Kilda takes to the field on Saturday week against Western Bulldogs they will end nine consecutive seasons without finals football. A desperately long wait that must have felt like an eternity for Saints fans but where does it sit in the history of longest streaks without finals? And who holds the crown for the longest current drought?
The answers might surprise you!
Current Droughts
With St Kilda bringing an end to almost a decade without Finals footy, who holds the record for the longest current drought? In order the longest droughts are:
Gold Coast – 10 seasons
Carlton – 7 seasons
Fremantle – 5 seasons
North Melbourne – 4 seasons
Adelaide – 3 seasons
Melbourne, Sydney, Hawthorn – 2 seasons
Essendon, GWS – 1 season
Longest ever finals droughts
We know now who has taken over the mantle from Melbourne as the longest current drought but where does their 11 consecutive seasons out of the finals sit in relation to the longest ever droughts.
Hawthorn – 32 seasons (1925 – 1956)
Sydney – 24 seasons (1946 – 1969)
Melbourne – 22 seasons (1965 – 1986)
St Kilda – 21 seasons (1940 – 1960)
North Melbourne – 20 seasons (1925 – 1944)
Richmond – 19 seasons (1948 – 1966)
Fitzroy – 18 seasons (1925 – 1942) & (1961 – 1978)
St Kilda – 17 seasons (1974 – 1990)
North Melbourne – 15 seasons (1959 – 1973)
Western Bulldogs – 13 seasons (1925 – 1937)
Essendon – 13 seasons (1927 – 1939)
Melbourne – 12 seasons (1903 – 1914)
Western Bulldogs – 12 seasons (1962 – 1973)
Richmond – 12 seasons (1983 – 1994)
Melbourne – 11 seasons (2006 – 2017)
What about the teams that missed this list, how long are their longest droughts?
Gold Coast – 10 seasons (2011 – 2020)
Brisbane Lions – 9 seasons (2010 – 2018)
Fremantle – 8 seasons (1995 – 2002)
Carlton – 7 seasons (2002 – 2008)
Collingwood – 7 seasons (1995 – 2001)
Geelong – 7 seasons (1982 – 1988)
Port Adelaide – 5 seasons (2008 – 2012)
GWS – 4 seasons (2012 – 2015)
West Coast – 3 seasons (2008 – 2010)
Adelaide 3 seasons (1994 – 1996)
There you have it pretty much everything you didn’t know you wanted to know about the longest finals droughts in competition history. Let’s hope nobody has to endure the wait that Hawthorn fans went through in the 1920’s – 1940’s. That said you might argue they have more than made up for it in the decades that have followed.
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