Richmond is a great example of a team which has built cohesion over the past 2 years, but they have also had a dream run at it this year. There is just a feeling of destiny about it all.
They literally only have 1 player on the injury list which is unbelievable considering the time of the year. They also got a dream draw for finishing so low last year.
If we can somehow buck our injury trend, we can be similarly placed as we'll get a favourable draw you would think given our bottom 6 finish.
The other thing is that pressure is seemingly the key these days. The Doggies won a flag last year based purely on fanatic pressure. Richmond are going about their footy similarly. The Dogs dropped of this year because their pressure dropped 5% and they lost momentum. It was enough for them to drop out of the 8 completely.
It just shows that the talent on your list isn't necessarily the be all and end all...there's also elements of luck, timing and good player management.
To be perfectly honest, I don't think Richmond's list or the Doggies list are the best in the AFL. But they have had momentum and have played at a high level of intensity.
At our best, we can play at this level, we just haven't shown it consistently.
I'd be more than happy to just use our pick 6 this year on Fogarty and throw everything at Tom Lynch next year. I reckon cohesion is the way to go. We've had so many list changes over the past few years, it's time to just settle it down a bit and give the list the chance to gel and build that momentum.