If Api Koroisau or Clint Gutherson are struggling for the words to describe what it feels like to take home the dreaded wooden spoon tonight, they could take a leaf out of Preston Campbell’s book after his Titans trailed the field home in 2011.
Playing the last game of his illustrious career, Campbell suffered the ignominy of a 32-12 loss to the Eels that consigned Gold Coast to their first ever spoon, made even more galling by the fact they had played finals the previous two seasons.
But rather than reaching for excuses or kicking stones, Campbell kept a smile on his face as he told the waiting media, ‘It has been a frustrating year but I have enjoyed every minute, that may seem hard to understand but that's me’.
‘And I will use the wooden spoon to stir my porridge, I love porridge!’
Beaten but still upbeat, light-hearted rather than broken hearted.
History shows the Titans endured four more tough campaigns before returning to the finals in 2016, while things would get a whole lot worse before they got better for the Eels, as they slumped to consecutive spoons in 2012-13.
Wests Tigers v Eels: Round 27
Hardly the dark days of the 50s and 60s when they collected eight spoons in the space of a decade but still a massive wake-up call for the blue and golds.
Come 2024 and it’s Wests Tigers staring down the barrel of a third straight spoon after slumping to a 4-20 record in both 2022 and 2023 to claim the game’s most unwanted gong.
Having arrested a seven-game losing streak with a win over the Rabbitohs and then backed that up with a stunning defeat of Manly at Leichhardt, the Tigers take plenty of momentum into tonight's clash, with Koroisau saying an edict to 'stick to the process and enjoy ourselves' has worked wonders.
"I love it [the spoon bowl], it has put a bit of novelty on the end of the year," Koroisau said on Wednesday.
"Sometimes you get here and there is nothing up for grabs but for us it is pretty important, we don't want to come last.
"I'm looking forward to it, it has been a great couple of weeks and it's our last game together so the boys are pretty excited.
"I think we have taken a step in the right direction this year. Even though the results haven't gone our way you can see the footy we've been playing and the way our fans have supported us has been incredible.
Wests Tigers v Sea Eagles – Round 25, 2024
"The last win at Leichhardt [against Manly] was off its head and to go out to Campbelltown and finish it off this weekend I'm excited."
Across town at the Eels, the overriding emotion may be more relief than excitement as they bring down the curtain on a horror season that saw their coach sacked after 11 rounds and rising star Blaize Talagi sign with arch-rivals the Panthers.
Just two years after making a grand final the Eels have won just six games, two of which came during August when Gutherson's men downed the Warriors and Dragons while also taking the high-flying Panthers to the limit in Round 23.
The Eels rebounded from their last wooden spoon in 2018 by making four consecutive finals series, culminating in a trip to the big dance in 2022, which makes their fall from grace this season even harder to accept.
Sivo gets a hat-trick
As club legend Nathan Hindmarsh noted in 2011 when he skippered the side that beat consigned Campbell's Titans to the spoon, 'there's a big gap between last and second-last, let me tell you'.
Those words will no doubt resonate with Gutherson as he prepares to put his body on the line one more time before taking a well-earned break and looking to a new dawn under Jason Ryles in 2025.
"This game is probably over-hyped to where we are both sitting but no one wants the spoon," Gutherson said after last week's win over the Dragons.
"We just want to win, finish the season well.
"The last three months we have been in every game. We want to finish the season on a high and enjoy each other’s company for the last time.
"We're not playing finals but we need to embrace it and enjoy the week together."
Come 8pm tonight, we'll know whether the dreaded spoon is staying at Concord for another 12 months or being packaged up and mailed across town to Parramatta headquarters.
Either way, Gutherson and Koroisau can put their feet up and watch an enthralling finals series unfold before they start sowing the seeds for a revival.
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