The Australian rugby leaguewooden spooners are the team that finished last in the premier top-grade rugby league competition in Australia, which is currently the National Rugby League, and was previously the New South Wales Rugby Football League, the Australian Rugby League, and Super League. Each of these seasons is considered to represent one continuous line of competition dating back from the first season in 1908. The wooden spoon is an unofficial award, however, fans often bring "real" wooden spoons to taunt opposition sides who are struggling on the bottom of the ladder. Since the Melbourne Storm's salary cap breach which saw them win the wooden spoon in 2010, betting agencies have instead placed wagers on who would suffer the most losses in a single season, rather than win the wooden spoon itself.
First grade
SP denotes seasons played. % refers to the percentage of seasons played that resulted in wooden spoons. ^ - The Melbourne Storm were forced to finish last in 2010 as a result of a salary cap breach uncovered earlier in the season.
records accurate as of end of 2012 season.
NRL Women's Premiership
Bold teams indicate that the club still exists in the present competition.
As of 2019, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles have avoided the wooden spoon in their 70 completed seasons since entering the competition in 1947. They are the only current pre-1988 club to have avoided the wooden spoon. Four other current clubs have also never claimed the wooden spoon: Brisbane Broncos, New Zealand Warriors, St. George Illawarra Dragons, and Wests Tigers. The Balmain Tigers enjoyed a sixty-two season wooden spoon drought from 1911-1974, and St. George Dragons had went 60 seasons prior to the joint venture with the Illawarra Steelers
Spoon Bowl
In recent NRL seasons, the media had started to describe the matches between the two last placed sides as the "Spoon Bowl". One of the first instances the term being used was in 2011 when the Parramatta Eels and the Gold Coast Titans played against each other in the final match of the regular season with the loser receiving the wooden spoon. In 2014, the term was used again when Canberra played against Cronulla with both sides sitting on the bottom of the table. In 2015, Newcastle and Penrith played against each other in the third instance of the "Spoon Bowl" term to be used. In 2017, the Wests Tigers and Newcastle played in the fourth spoon bowl game with Wests defeating Newcastle and avoiding last place. In 2018, Parramatta who were in last place and Canterbury who were in second last faced off against each other in the fifth edition of the spoon bowl. There were fears before the match that it could have been the lowest crowd for an NRL game in 20 years. Parramatta went on to win the game 14-8. In Round 24 of the 2018 season, Parramatta played against North Queensland in the sixth edition of the spoon bowl. North Queensland won the match 44-6 in Townsville which was also Johnathan Thurston's final home game before retirement, the match was also Matt Scott's 250th game. The result ensured Parramatta finished with the wooden spoon, their 14th in total.
