Opinion Where will we be at in 2026

Remove this Banner Ad

I think our defence is in pretty good shape, with the youngsters really stepping up to the plate in that part of the ground - Butts, Hamill, Doedee, McPherson, with Worrell & McAsey waiting in the wings.

I also think we're well fixed for small/medium forwards, with McAdam, Rowe, Newchurch (fingers crossed), Murphy & McHenry.

TT should be well & truly up & running by then, but Tex will be gone - and he will leave a huge hole in our forward line. I have no faith in Fogarty, Himmelberg or Frampton, so we still need to find another quality tall forward.

ROB should still be going strong in the ruck, though we do need to think about a backup - and we'll want to have a young ruckman training to take over from him as well.

The biggest concern remains the midfield. Sholl & Schoenberg look like they have the goods, with Schoenberg having a breakout game against North. Keays should still be around by then, if he hasn't been pushed out by someone better (love his workrate, but he's seriously blue collar). Our midfield is still largely dependent on Sloane, Laird, Smith and Seedsman, and Crouch (though he hasn't played yet in 2021); none of these players will be on our list in 5 years time.

There are still a whole lot of question marks over our younger midfielders. Berry shows promise, and has huge defensive pressure, but offensively his best is still only 10 disposals. Pedlar looked good in the pre-season games, before getting injured. Hately hasn't impressed to date, and beyond him we're really looking at kids who haven't even shown much at SANFL level yet. It's just too early to say whether or not any of these kids will make it, and this is where our future will be decided.

If the young midfielders turn out to be good (as Sholl has already shown himself to be), then the future looks bright. If not...

We really need to find a Tex replacement, a couple of rucks (1x backup, 1x development), and a whole bunch of gun midfielders (it's possible that one or two are already on our list). Do that, and the sky is the limit.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Truck25 said:
Wait! your talking a 12 year rebuild....5 to finals and another 7 to the GF! WTF!
Click to expand...

Several years from a flag, not seven.

Historically it's taken teams 5 years from first entering the bottom 4 to making finals, and then around another 2-3 years for a flag. So a rebuild typically takes 8 years.
 
The last time I was hopelessly optimistic, so to save 2026 me from wondering "what the hell was I thinking"? all I'm going to predict is we're still a football club by then.




In all seriousness, what I've seen in the last month has me confident we're on the right track, and at this point I'd expect us to be beginning to enter our window with this group by 2026.
 
The year is 2026 and the captain of AFC is Tom Doedee, with Luke Pedlar the successor
2022 we make finals
2023 we make a prlim on the back of Tex's last year and a rapid improvement from the youth
2024 is a down year after a couple of retirments
2025-2026 sees a return to finals with a Prelim appearance
Riley Thilthorpe hasn't lived up to expectations and Logan McDonald is a star of the competition (oh how I hope I am wrong)
AAs to Doedee & Sholl
Newchurch becomes an elite small forward
We trade in one of Rankine & Lukosius and pay too much
Matthew Nicks is still coach
Our home base is in Thebarton
Rory Laird is a 3 x B&F winner
Taylor Walker plays on until 2023 and finishes on 600 goals
Kane Cornes is still a flog
 
Who knows. Ask a Richmond fan what they thought at the end of 2016, or a Port fan at the end of 2014. Things can change for good, or bad, unexpectedly and quickly.
 
We will be stuck in that 12-5th spot for another 10 years.
Not good enough to win a flag, but better than the teams who bottom out.
Typical Adelaide FC.
We need a couple of years loading up on top talent. We need top 5 picks the next two years.
With McAstey most likely leaving, and Talia at the end of his career, we are still one or two KPDs away, and three or so mids.

Our midfield will look something like
Berry, Pedler, Schoenberg, Jones, ????,????,????.

Its the ???? Players who need to be guns in the Sloane, Danger mold.
 
Since I made this post i might as well try.

I believe Nicks will still be coach

Thilthorpe will be good but not where we expected him to be, will either be used in ruck or a defender

Our midfield will be led by Pedlar, Berry, Schoenberg and left field but O'Connor

McAsey will no longer be with us but our back line will be strong with captain Doedee, Butts, Worrell, McPherson and Hamill

Our forward line will not contain some names that are in there now (excluding Tex who will retire long before then but hope I'm wrong on the ones I believe will not be)

We will be a finals contender but not quite a premiership threat. I am betting we will be a good one or two kpf off being a serious threat



On SM-G988B using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
BringbacktheBiff2005 said:
The year is 2026 and the captain of AFC is Tom Doedee, with Luke Pedlar the successor
2022 we make finals
2023 we make a prlim on the back of Tex's last year and a rapid improvement from the youth
2024 is a down year after a couple of retirments
2025-2026 sees a return to finals with a Prelim appearance
Riley Thilthorpe hasn't lived up to expectations and Logan McDonald is a star of the competition (oh how I hope I am wrong)
AAs to Doedee & Sholl
Newchurch becomes an elite small forward
We trade in one of Rankine & Lukosius and pay too much
Matthew Nicks is still coach
Our home base is in Thebarton
Rory Laird is a 3 x B&F winner
Taylor Walker plays on until 2023 and finishes on 600 goals
Kane Cornes is still a flog
Click to expand...
If TT doesn't live up to expectations, then we won't be making the 2023 PF.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

We should be somewhere in the top eight with guys like Doedee, Schoenberg, Sholl, Butts, Hamill and Moose all at the peak of their powers. Nicks is doing a pretty good job of turning us around but needs to keep improving and adapting himself.

Can't keep pissing away first rounders if we're going to build a premiership quality list though.
 
Premiers after the disappointment of two lost Prelims in 2023/24.

Chayce Jones topping off his Brownlow year with a Norm Smith medal.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
 
Approaching 3 full decades without a flag. By 2026 you’d have to be at least 40 to have a really strong memory of 1998.

I was in year 12 for our last flag. In 2026 I’ll be 45.....

think we will rue 2017 for a long time
 
HG Pennypacker said:
Approaching 3 full decades without a flag. By 2026 you’d have to be at least 40 to have a really strong memory of 1998.

I was in year 12 for our last flag. In 2026 I’ll be 45.....

think we will rue 2017 for a long time
Click to expand...
I was Three in 98 obviously don’t remember it at all

Yep 2017 hurt
 
2021, 2022 around 8-10 wins, 2023 10-12 wins, 2024 possibly a breakout top 4 season, if we cannot take our next chance in the future the underachieving will continue for many years.
 
We will be going for our three peat and win convincingly and will be compared with other great teams that did similar.
There, everyone now has something to look forward to.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

adelaidecrows
  • Poll
Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach (Part 2) - Re-Signed to End of 2026 🤮
128 129 130 131 132
Replies
3K
Views
103K
Sanders
Sanders
Cleric
Opinion So, where are we at this stage of our rebuild?
2 3
Replies
56
Views
2K
Alwaysacrow
Alwaysacrow
skam85
Do we lose again ??
Replies
14
Views
333
whattagun07
whattagun07
knobby
Prediction Could we go 0-10 ??
2 3 4 5
Replies
123
Views
4K
TRP1996
T
Scorpus
Player Watch Billy Dowling - Re-Signed to End of 2026
5 6 7 8 9
Replies
200
Views
20K
rocket18
rocket18
Scorpus
Player Watch Max Michalanney - Re-Signed to End of 2026
37 38 39 40 41
Replies
1K
Views
57K
1990crow
1990crow
Moe Ron
  • Poll
Prediction Will we make finals in 2023? AFL responds with "...not on my watch"
68 69 70 71 72
Replies
2K
Views
69K
LoBu
LoBu

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top