Which, out of the following clubs, will end their Premiership drought first?

Which, out of the following clubs, will end their Premiership drought first?

  • Western Bulldogs (Last Premiership: 1954. Last Grand Final: 1961)

    Votes: 106 44.7%
  • Melbourne (Last Premiership: 1964. Last Grand Final: 2000)

    Votes: 28 11.8%
  • St Kilda (Last Premiership: 1966. Last Grand Final: 2010)

    Votes: 19 8.0%
  • Richmond (Last Premiership: 1980. Last Grand Final: 1982)

    Votes: 53 22.4%
  • Too hard to choose!

    Votes: 31 13.1%

  • Total voters
    237
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BadGuy

Team Captain
Feb 21, 2006
302
80
Victoria
AFL Club
Richmond
So which of the following clubs will end there Premiership drought first? I think it's a hard one to answer but if I had to, it probably come down to Melbourne or St. Kilda..
 

TheHoneyBadger

"I lost my phone"
10k Posts Western Bulldogs - Cordy, Honeychurch, Prudden, Dale Player Sponsor 2015
Sep 17, 2012
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Footscray
Objectively, I think we're best placed from right now, but there's a lot that can go wrong and it can all come down to the bounce of the ball.

In order, Dogs, Saints, Dees, Tiges. Big fan of the Saints' coach and they've got some fantastic young guns. I'm not sure about the Dees with Roos not willing to commit long term and a bit of work to be done on the list (I'd be confident in getting this right with Roos in charge). Not sold on the Tiges at all, though. Like Hardwick but don't think they've got it in them to get past the second week of the finals.

Hopefully all can deliver some long awaited success in the near future, though. I've long said that the perfect Grand Final would be between the Dogs and the Saints.
 
Aug 24, 2012
37,270
53,408
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Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
T'Wolves/Patrick Beverley/Footscray
I think our list is in the best shape heading into the future out of these teams right now, however, it's way too early to even be considering ending the premiership drought. Need to fill a lot of holes (especially key position players) before we're any semblance of a chance of doing so.

These sorts of polls are tricky because there's a very real possibility that none of these teams win a premiership with the 'current era' of players - and if we're not judging on the current crop, we're deciding based on players that aren't even on an AFL list yet.

I've picked 'too hard to choose' accordingly. It's a cop out answer but I just don't think there's an answer to this question. If it was, "Who is the best placed to end their premiership doubt," I'd probably choose us, but on this question, really, the only thing you can do is guess.
 

Engimal

Cancelled
10k Posts North Melbourne - 2018 Luke Davies-Uniacke and Paul Ahern Player Sponsor Pantskyle Minecraft Shiny Penny Ruby
Apr 27, 2010
11,237
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North Melbourne
Bulldogs can only get better from here.
 

ryan_seb

Team Captain
May 21, 2014
464
275
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Chelsea, Cavaliers, Seahawks
With the Bulldogs list I reckon they'll be able to end the drought.
 

Rainfall

Norm Smith Medallist
Suspended
Aug 10, 2013
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Geelong
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You'd think Bulldogs or Saints both have very good youth but Bulldogs are ahead of them at the moment hence the Win/Loss differences but I think in 5 years time they'll both be joining Port/GCS/GWS up in the top 5
 

tigers_of_old_08

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Oct 22, 2007
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Not meaning to jinx them ;), Doggies are a shoe-in. :D

If all the current coaches remained at these cubs for the next 5 years, then you'd say Demons would be in the running.

Nah, Tigers easily!
 
Do the Dogs have any good KPD's? I haven't paid much attention to them this year and it seemed to be problem last year. There seems to have been a few bags kicked against them this year by the big forwards.
In the VFL we have Talia and Roberts, both of which we are very happy with. Roberts is one of our better players pretty much every week. Just needs to bulk up a bit more.
I'd expect both will get more regular games next year.
 

thetradesman

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Sep 15, 2013
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I'd say us and the dogs.

Saints and dees have big problems.
 

Shaneprice97

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Sep 24, 2013
5,240
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Collingwood
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Doggies, midfield basically settled for the next 10 years, they definitely need another key forward(Patton pls) but with there odd amount of medium forwards i cant tell if they another one to add to that, maybe Jones could be that number 2 key forward, maybe Campbell could?

Down back i like Roughead, his form this season probably hasnt been that great(i havent taken notice, he probably could be in great form) but at 200cm tall they definitely have something to work with for 7-10 years, i think he could be fantastic and his season last year was impressive. What im still wondering about the Doggies backline is who can be that number 2 key defender and who can be the 3rd tall? Morris isnt a long term option and Austin has been okay, could Roberts and Talia be the second and 3rd tall defenders? I think so, or do the Bulldogs need to recruit a young kpd?
 
Doggies, midfield basically settled for the next 10 years, they definitely need another key forward(Patton pls) but with there odd amount of medium forwards i cant tell if they another one to add to that, maybe Jones could be that number 2 key forward, maybe Campbell could?

Down back i like Roughead, his form this season probably hasnt been that great(i havent taken notice, he probably could be in great form) but at 200cm tall they definitely have something to work with for 7-10 years, i think he could be fantastic and his season last year was impressive. What im still wondering about the Doggies backline is who can be that number 2 key defender and who can be the 3rd tall? Morris isnt a long term option and Austin has been okay, could Roberts and Talia be the second and 3rd tall defenders? I think so, or do the Bulldogs need to recruit a young kpd?
Couple of points, Campbell will be our #1 ruck so he can't be our #1 forward. Also doesn't offer enough once the ball hits the deck to be that player.

Roughead isn't in good form, but he's without a doubt playing through injury. His shoulders are shot and he should be iced for the season and booked in for surgery.

The plan is that Roberts and Talia would be the 2nd and 3rd tall defenders. Roberts has excellent game sense and composure, and Talia is a great defender. There are rumours Talia wants to leave due to an extended VFL stint, but who knows whether it's just speculation or not. I'm confident they'll both be long term players for the club. Austin is depth, but we'd probably want one more KPD developing, it can't hurt.
 
Feb 23, 2009
32,138
45,736
Melbourne
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Richmond
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I voted too hard to choose.
The reason is that unless your a contender this year or the next, it's too hard to look forward for flags.
Premierships are so hard to come by and clubs fortunes change so quickly that 2-3 years from now any of them could be vastly better than the others.
 
Jan 7, 2011
35,108
71,501
Heaven. I mean Victoria.
AFL Club
St Kilda
I voted too hard to choose.
The reason is that unless your a contender this year or the next, it's too hard to look forward for flags.
Premierships are so hard to come by and clubs fortunes change so quickly that 2-3 years from now any of them could be vastly better than the others.
A whole lot of this!

This is a thread about clubs that either haven't won a premiership since Noah was a boy, or who haven't played consecutive finals series for almost 40 years (Richmond), so it's not as if any of them are dead certs to win one in the next few years, or even with any of their current list still playing, especially as none of their lists probably come close to comparing to Sydney's, GWS's or Gold Coast's, as far as talent across the board goes.

As for current lists, yes the Doggies list is looking good as far as their midfield in particular goes (very good in fact), but if they don't improve their key position stocks considerably in the next few years they could end up in the same situation they were in the last time they were making prelims, when they had a really good midfield and so-on, but didn't have enough dominant tall options up forward, or perhaps quite enough in the key defence areas, to progress to even a GF.

GWS and Gold Coast probably have just as good future midfields coming through, if not better, but both those teams have much better looking key position stocks, especially GWS. Sydney also have an amazing looking long term midfield, which is only likely to get considerably stronger if they add Heeney, Dunkley and Mills on the cheap in the next two offseasons. They also have that Buddy character, plus Tippett and Reid. WB also seem to have a mental block as far as progressing past the prelim stage goes, having lost their last 7 or so prelims, from memory, so they'll need to overcome that before even thinking about how to win a GF.

I'm also not sure that Richmond have a premiership contending list, in fact I don't believe they currently do, as they have some really good pieces, but I think they could also be missing one more dominant key position option at either end, to compliment J-Roo and Rance and I struggle to see how they get either of them any time soon, given they won't have much of value that they'd be willing to trade. For them to be a genuine premiership chance against the likes of Sydney and then probably Gold Coast and GWS, I think they'll need to land a very big fish or two through free agency in the next year or two and for pretty much everything else to go right.

As for Melbourne, well they are still in a world of hurt as a result of their recent history and need to get a lot of things back on track before even being considered a likely premiership contending team again and finally we are in the midst of a full rebuild, so lots has to go well before we're contending again.

That said, I'm happy enough with how it's coming along and we're now every chance of having the next two no.1 picks in the national drafts to play with, and that can help enormously. We've also shown that we are prepared to make the brutally tough calls necessary to improve our list going forward (eg. letting the likes of Goddard and Dal Santo walk and trading McEvoy), which a team like the Bulldogs may not be prepared to do (they could easily trade up to a top 3 pick this year I reckon, and get a "gun KPF", but will they have the chops to do it?) and we at least are the one club of these 4 to have played in more than one grand final since the AFL era began, in 1990 (having played in 3- 4 if you count the 2010 replay), so we do at least have a very recent memory of what it takes to make it to the big dance and we still have at least 10 on our list who have played in at least one GF, so it ought to help having them all there to teach the next generation what it takes to get onto that biggest stage. Winning that final one will be our big mental hurdle though, having now not won any of our last 5 or so GF's.

Bottom line, I don't see any of these clubs winning one in the next 3 years, and after that, well, it's hard enough picking who will win all the games this week, let alone who will win a premiership in 4 or more years time!
 
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