They might not have rejoined. The reason why we are good isn't only to do with the players that came back. Look at our younger players plus Daniher.Carlton didn't have a dozen quality players waiting to re-join the team after 12 months off - Their squad was s**t after their draft sanctions
Essendon's draft sanctions were laughable (Adelaide's Tippett fiasco cost more draft picks) and Essendon's squad was never wooden spoon material
Of the players that came back, only Hooker, Hurley and Heppell are quality best 22 players. Hardly the dozen quality players that you're saying. Even that, Hooker is not even playing in his preferred position, obviously lacking some forward craft. We lost a lot of quality players because of the saga, but made the most out of it through trades, rookie picks, nailing draft picks and fantastic player development.
We made finals because of our younger crop that performed even when the returning players ran out of steam in the first half of the year. We simply dealt with the consequences much better than Carlton did. We did everything right to get us to this point. The "we weren't punished" line people keep repeating ad nauseam is just a bs excuse to try and undermine our hard work.