AFL 2025: contending, reconstructing, building and no man’s land

At the end of the 90s, then Carlton’s coach David Parkin expressed his point of view that the clubs entered the reconstruction mode when they had no choice. “It means that you are filling.”

Therefore, it is not surprising that Brad Scott and having described their position of 2025 as “a restoration” and that the bombers have already endured that word that is a signal for fans of being patient, while children accumulate games and veterans are delicately or forcibly driven out.

It is questionable if they have been reconstructing or in the logical subsequent phase, that a director of the veterans of another club designated as a “building”.

In his presentation to the club hierarchy a few years ago, the manager of the relevant list said that there were four phases of the development of the list of a team: contending, reconstructing, building and the method that is the most dangerous land, no man.

Today, there are three clubs that I would have included in the land of No Man, which means that they are not reconstructing, contending or even building.

The readers should not surprise that Melbourne, Carlton and Port Adelaide are the clubs that have come across the land of no man, although demons are trying a cultural reconstruction and have refreshed their list with young talents.

The teams that end up in that list of Purgatory are often those who have tried to contend and are not yet engaged in the next phase and are not young on the whole. Melbourne returns to that category, alas.

Demons have decreased in proportion to aging and injuries – to Christian Petracca’s happiness, as much as his internal organs – of their superstar. Managing the discomfort or decline is difficult.

Carlton’s slip in the land of Limbo is mainly due to excessive dependence on a super Six Players, some of which are read with injuries and insufficient depth.

Richmond of 2023 was in the land of No Man, trapped between the glorious Hardwick/Cotchin revolution and the imminent reconstruction that has turned into a terrestrial and burnt version. Their correction of the course to reconstruct was immediate.

Probably, the bombers have been abandoned in the land of No Man for years after the drug saga-cente they landed there at the beginning of this decade, while the attempts to follow the suspension of the dispute (see operations of 2017-19) have failed. St Kilda was in the same unwanted postal code, once the 2013-17 reconstruction based on the rocks of scarce selections.

“What you do after is the most important thing,” said the director of the list of a team of teams that have not fallen into the land of any man.

In 2025, the position of five clubs is as clear as the cut glass. Richmond and the West Coast Eagles are in total reconstructed. Brisbane, Greater Western Sydney and Hawthorn are unequivocally in a premiership dispute.

The reconstruction is defined, as the NFL teams do, like the stage when your prevalent priority is to collect talents. The path is long -haul, the primary mechanism of the draft.

If you are reconstructing, it does not make sense to give up a significant shooting capital for a player older than the mid -1920s. Therefore, they can be defined in that mode: they have avoided the pursuit of Dan Houston, keeping their draft choices and are deploying teams in the three bass for the games played and age.

Construction is the phase that follows or which clubs sometimes return when they are “refreshing” after their dispute has passed.

Assisted by the recruiter or manager of lists, I inserted all 18 clubs in the four phases of the construction of lists.

Adelaide and Gold Coast seem threatening, and it is conceivable that both could reach the first six. But their lists profiles – with a minimum ending experience (none in the history of the Gold Coast) – define those teams as a “construction” club par excellence.

Fremantle demographic data are surprisingly basically for the games played this year. Despite the high expectations (which this column has shared), the Dockers cannot be placed in the contender field and are certainly building.

This does not prevent the crows, the only ones or even the documents from giving a shock to the premiership. The point is that they are not yet ripe. If they compete for this year, it will be in advance.

“Building” is characterized by a move to specific recruitment based on the needs of mature players, such as Fremantle Trading for Shai Bolton or Suns who import Half Backs in running Dan Rioli and John Noble.

Collingwood and Geelong, due to their demographic data (and the refusal to bow to the gravity of the draft), are in disputed mode, even if it is not yet clear if they can go all the way. Regardless of the fact that they make the first four, the old gaces run the risk of a descent into the land of No Man in 2026 without an infusion of quality young people.

Sydney started this season in the mix of premiership. I doubt they are able to win it. But I designated them as “contenders” on the basis of the fact that they were minor prizes and large finalists last year and the aspirations of the port flag.

The Bulldogs, impressive in overcoming the absence of Marcus Bontempelli and Adam Taloar, are precisely on the cusp of the dispute. The list of the list, however, suggests that they are – alone – on the construction site.

Surprisingly, North Melbourne graduated in a perennial reconstruction in “building” under Alastair Clarkson, on the back of the repeated five choices. This switch is evident in the recruitment of Jack Darling, Caleb Daniel and Luke Parker, in the pursuit of mature actors on the market and the desire to exchange an early choice for Houston.

St Kilda, while performing better than North lately, has most of the distinctive features of a reconstruction team and I classified them accordingly, together with Bombers, Richmond and West Coast.

Probably, the bombers were abandoned in the land of No Man for years after the drug saga. St Kilda was in the same unwanted postal code, once the 2013-16 reconstruction based on the rocks of scarce selections.

The saints have maintained their draft choices from the arrival of Ross Lyon, launching the veterans Seb Ross and Tim Membrey, and they were not unhappy to obtain compensation for Josh Battle. The decision of St Kilda to extend the Lyon contract, as he did with Scott, approved their opinion of having the coach they wanted and wished to give him a longer walkway.

“We transformed ourselves from one of the oldest lists of competition to one of the youngest,” said the president Andrew Bassat When the extension of Lyon was announced.

The hawthorn also spent time in the land of No Man at the beginning of this decade, before the clumsy delivers from Clarkson to Sam Mitchell to unleashed a showdown e A reconstruction of 66 list games. As with other clubs, the Hawks planned to collect the draft before it was sacked by the devils of Tasmania.

The 2025 hawthorn is a rare instance of a club that has jumped directly from the reconstruction in dispute, circumventing the gateway of the construction mode.

The competition is so close now that more than a dozen clubs can aspire to end every year. The corner stone of success, as the club recognize, is getting the right of forecast. Knowing yourself.

To exhaust the wardrobe of the pulling choices and/or the space of the salary cap and therefore fail, it can deliver a club to Purgatory in the land of No Man or a period in the cellar.

Such was the lot of Lions under Michael Voss when they launched Brendan Fevola in a wise way in 2009 after a fleeting victory of the finals on Carlton; They had not returned to the final until 2019. At that point, a new club had sprung up on the Gold Coast, the free agency had arrived and the Victorian empires – and the “Rugba League” of Peter V’alandys – had rejected.

Project the position of the Melbourne scale in 2025 was not much simpler than the time expected in the city of the same name.

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