When there are teams battling it out, vying for that elusive top four race, just remember the teams in the cellar.
When there's a winner there's also a loser, and we predict the following five teams will lose - a lot!
With a mixture of young, rebuilding lists and disappointing sliders, our 2025 wooden spoon race is exactly where you don't want to be.
4. St Kilda
St Kilda are entering 2025 undermanned and under pressure.
Injuries have simply ravaged the Saints, with Port Adelaide dominating their most recent pre-season encounter at Moorabbin.
Forwards Max King, Mitchito Owens and Mattaes Phillipou are expected to miss the early rounds of the season. Phillipou, in particular, will be sidelined for at least the next eight weeks.
Add to this the injuries to key defender Dougal Howard and midfielder Paddy Dow, and St Kilda have struggled to find any sort of consistency this pre-season.
Regardless of these injuries, we still predict St Kilda will have a downturn this year and enter the race for the wooden spoon.
On their day, the Saints are incredibly tough to beat. The prototypical Ross Lyon defensive schemes are difficult to match, but the impact of the outgoing Josh Battle and the injury clouds surrounding Dougal Howard and Jack Sinclair will likely disrupt their effectiveness.
This places more pressure on a forward line that has continued to struggle with consistency throughout last season. Obviously, King's health is a large part of that - playing just 23 games over the last two seasons is simply not enough. But Ross Lyon has also struggled to get the best out of Owens and Liam Henry. Both have shown glimpses of brilliance but can't be left to carry an effective forward line.
