Adelaide, North Melbourne, Sydney, Hawthorn. Who would you rather be going forward and why???

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Dangerousfield

Premiership Player
Oct 11, 2012
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Adelaide
Just watched a demolition of GWS whose only three goals came from one dubious and two just plain wrong free kicks.

I'm voting Sydney in this poll on the back of that demolition and they add three very good players at the draft, nice.
 

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May 5, 2006
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West Coast
Sydney and North have a head start on good young players.

Swans have a great core of 24 and unders. North have a few good prospects also. Adelaide are a bit of an unknown because they've been an older, experienced side for so long. Based on their team vs Collingwood 13 of the 22 hadn't played 50 games and 7 of those had played 10 or fewer. Matt Crouch is 25 and has played 119 games, the next most experienced are Seedsman and Hartigan who are both 28 with 100+ and then it's Ben Keays who is 23 and has played 40. There were a couple of young players out, though. Hawthorn have (in)famously prioritised trading in experienced players in recent years rather than hitting the draft hard. Decent 25-30 core, not much else to write home about.

But current list profile is only one facet. Sydney and Hawthorn have been strong on field for 10-15 years and are strong off field. They have stability and good people behind the scenes. Players still want to join those clubs. Adelaide are an off field powerhouse but have been up and down on field and haven't won a flag since the 90s. They also have players leave at an alarming rate. Bock, Gunston, Tippett, Lever, Cameron, McGovern, Greenwood, Keath, Dangerfield, Ellis-Yolmen, Lyons, Davis, even Betts, Jacobs and Jenkins all left for various reasons. In the same period who have Sydney and Hawthorn lost? There is something culturally wrong at Adelaide that needs to be addressed.

North are always pushing s**t uphill to some degree because they are North. Small off field and not a 'destination club', competitive but not successful on field since the 90s. But it doesn't preclude them from building a good team.
 

PAFC_1870

Cancelled
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Feb 21, 2009
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Sydney easily.

Already on the path. Other 3 haven't turned the corner yet.
 
Sep 19, 2013
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Brisbane Lions
North and Sydney are well ahead of the other two in my book. Both have some genuine young stars and a handfull of younger lads playing important roles already. North I think could very well have 3 first round picks too if they end up trading Ben Brown. So both if those clubs I believe are well underway with the list refresh.

Hawthorn should be playing much better football than they are considering their quality on paper. The fact that they are not is extremely concerning. Very little young talent on the list means they have a lot to do to climb back up. Their strategy of trading in established talent looks set to hit a snag now they are at the wrong end of the ladder. Luckily for them the club itself should be in good order and they might be able to turn it around without languishing at the bottom of the ladder for year after year.

Adelaide is playing plenty of kids and has plenty in reserve, but at this point there doesn't appear to be a great deal of talent ready to lead the charge back up the ladder. Add in the cultural issues and it could be a case of not having actually bottomed out yet. Worse might still be to come for Adelaide. But what's worse than the bottom? Don't worry Adelaide Brisbane, Melbourne and Carlton have all been there.

So for me it's Sydney, North, Hawthorn, Adelaide.
 

MarcusP2

Brownlow Medallist
Sep 21, 2009
12,987
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Sydney easily
1) Good young players
2) Academy
3) AFL see them as key to future rights deals and game growth
4) Good admin and strong chair
5) More recent success
 
Oct 16, 2003
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Murrumbeena
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Hawthorn
Well considering Simpkin has been in weekly AA sides for a portion of this year, definately him. He has been down since he hurt his ankle about 3-4 weeks ago.

I see no reason why Thomas and LDU couldn't push that barrier down the track if injury free. They have the talent.

Larkey? Maybe. His numbers stack up well against most young KPP's of his age in the comp.

Zurhaar, Scott and Taylor have the talent, it really comes down to how well they come on in the next 2-3 years as to see if they reach that level.


But again, it comes down to a bit of luck.

LDU has missed 7 months of training this year already.

Larkey has just returned from a 12 week injury.

Thomas is out for the season with a broken foot.

Scott missed most of last year with a broken foot.

Guys like Will Walker and EVW have missed the best part of the last 2.5 years etc.

We are certainly going to undertake a fairly significant cull at the end of this year.

Maybe it's just that I like 'the cut of his jib/the way he goes about it" but I reckon Zurhaar will be in line for an AA one day.

I don't see him as a 'consistent superstar' that will rack up the pill and get AA's every year but as a 'high impact' player that will continue to have wow moments and wow games, and then one season he will put it all together enough to be AA.

He tackles hard, impacts contests and uses the ball in a direct way such that he only needs to develop consistency to have week by week impact on the result of games to earn AA.
 

Shadow89

Cancelled
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Feb 20, 2018
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Sydney, because even in the midst of a rebuild, they always have their brand, their culture and they're always competitive regardless of personnel; this was on full display last night.

North and Hawthorn are in the wilderness, and Adelaide have so many problems - on and off the field -, that they probably won't make it back to contention for another decade
 

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I think Sydney are probably a year ahead of us in terms of developing their younger players, but I'm still quite bullish about the young talent we have put on the park over the last 12-18 months. I think we are developing a strong list of under 22's, if only they could stay on the park it would help their development and the teams.

I have no idea what's going on at Hawthorn, and Adelaide look like they have a couple of years of pain before they start see improvement.

At this stage I'd say Sydney is a year in front of North Melbourne, Hawthorn don't appear to have as many talented youngsters, but they have the game greatest modern day coach and so could turn it around in an off-season and Adelaide are have some pain to endure before they see improvement.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Clarko's current best 22 has short-medium term potential, but I have to side with the Swans youth. Crows & Kangaroos are both at least a few seasons from a flag with the right list management in place.
 

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