Every fan's question leading into the new season is 'What should I expect of my club in 2025?'
For some, it will be, and rightfully so, staking their claim as genuine contenders for the premiership.
For others, it will likely be to avoid the wooden spoon.
Irrespective of yesteryear's highs and lows, with the new year comes a new outlook that all 18 clubs can push for the ultimate glory, and 2025 is no different.
Thus, we examine where each side sits in terms of their respective 'premiership window' on various levels: wide open, opening, closing, and locked shut.
Western Bulldogs
Open
The Bulldogs are one of the more intriguing clubs in the AFL.
A team, under Luke Beveridge, has never finished inside the top four, has played in two grand finals and secured a drought-breaking premiership.
For that reason, there is not many in the modern day credentialed moreso than Beveridge.
Possessing arguably the best player in the modern game helps with that fact, while consistently unveiling young star talent always props up the thought that this team isn't far away from a premiership.
But in 2024, the Bulldogs were the second-best offensive team and the best defensive team, but couldn't convert that into a meaningful run in the finals, losing to Hawthorn in the opening week.
And that's been the narrative more often than not.
Beveridge and his coaching group have done well in consistently topping up the list with high-end talent, ensuring a new wave of youngsters don the red, white and blue each year.
As a result, the Victorian club is a hard read, therefore difficult to confidently place them among the genuine contenders.
But on paper, they are.
