Wests beat Souths,Penrith and Balmain in 1999.
They were fairly unlucky in some respects Ken McGuinness career tailed off by then and Leo Dynevor who looked excellent in 1997 for the Knights was terrible for Wests. Andrew Leeds retired he was always a dependable player. Darrent Fritz and Matt Fuller were both past it, the rest were either young players who got an opportunity or castoffs from other clubs.
Wests 1999 (Strongest Line Up) with the ability of hindsight.
1. Brett Hodgson
2. Ken McGuinness
3. Kevin McGuinness
4. Andrew Leeds
5. Justin Brooker
6. Leo Dynevor
7. Shane Perry
8. Harvey Howard
9. Ciriaco Mescia
10. John Skandalis
11. Matthew Spence
12. Adam Bristow
13. Steve Georgallis
14. Matthew Fuller
15. Ray Cashmere
16. Darren Fritz
17. Luke Goodwin/Dane Dorahy
That side does have some strong points, Wests had a good front row i think if you swapped over the Dragons front row with Wests that season the results would of been about the same. They had a couple of decent outside backs and Dynevor/Perry doesn't look the worst halves combination in the world from a historical perspective.
Also one last thing about Wests in 1999 they spent less than half the season on the bottom of the table. They spent 11 out of 26 rounds at the bottom of the table. To put that into perspective 42 teams have had longer runs of 12 or more consecutive weeks at the bottom of the table.
I think by the end of 1999 the club was on their last legs and had given up they were pretty woeful especially defensively but they did their best. I named their strongest side and that was nowhere near the side they fielded for most of the season. Even that side looks very ordinary. Still though they weren't even bottom of the table until round 13 and that was only for one round. It wasn't until round 17 that they were rooted to the bottom until the end of the season.
I am not sure they are the worst side in history.
Souths in 1945-46 spent 2 consecutive seasons or 28 consecutive rounds on the bottom of the ladder.
Parramatta spent 27 consecutive rounds stuck to the bottom of the ladder. In fact Parramatta from 1957-1960 were bottom of the table for 64 out of 72 rounds. They won only 9 games during that spell.
It might not even be Wests worst ever side. Wests were bottom of the table for the last 7 rounds of the 1983 season and for 25 of the 26 rounds available in 1984 in which they only won 1 game. Only Penrith in round 2 of 1984 stopped Wests from being bottom for 33 consecutive weeks.
Sorry for completely derailing the topic but most people were discussing Wests in 1999.
Cronulla,Canberra and Wests are all poor sides in an average competition.
