Essendon coach Brad Scott says there is plenty of evidence in the competition to suggest that his club can spike in 2025.
The Bombers have been starved of finals success for most of this century, which ironically began with a premiership in the year 2000.
But after their last finals win, which came four years later, compounded by only six September appearances since, the long-standing cultural issues and on-field troubles have worked into the woodwork at the Hangar, reminiscent of termites.
The shock signing of Scott โ who replaced Ben Rutten ahead of the 2023 season โ was a metaphorical knockdown job. The club would enter a new era and rebuild their house that saw an "overhaul" on and off the field.
"We've had an entire club reset over the last two years, we've turned over 50 per cent of our list," Scott said.
"While basically winning as many games as we've lost in that two-year period. So in terms of an entire list overhaul, a cultural reset on and off field, there's been a lot of change at the football club, but we felt that was necessary change.
"Now we feel like we have a fresh base from which to launch, and that starts right now."
A significant moment in Essendon's list overhaul was their firm stance with the enigmatic Jake Stringer, who was traded to GWS.
The Bombers refused to bend to Stringer's demands of adding another year onto his deal before facilitating a move to a third club, which Scott labelled a "good result for both parties" in January.
Attempting to trim the fat during the past three years, Essendon has walked a host of fringe players out the door, whilst also taking a draft-focused approach, landing generational talents in Elijah Tsatas (Pick 5, 2022), Nate Caddy (Pick 10, 2023) and Isaac Kako (Pick 13, 2024), among a mix of other promising youngsters.
The acquisition of ready-made players Ben McKay, Xavier Duursma, Will Setterfield and Jade Gresham has only improved the list and the potential for the club to spike in the seasons to come.
But despite Scott believing there are "many different ways to skin a cat", he sees Hawthorn and Geelong's list construct as the benchmark of the competition, taking the former's historic rise in 2024 as inspiration for his club to do the same 12 months later.
The Hawks have welcomed established stars Josh Battle, Tom Barrass, Jack Ginnivan, Mabior Chol, Karl Amon and Lloyd Meek whilst not compromising their position in the draft.
Since 2019, Will Day, Jai Newcombe, Josh Ward, Cam Mackenzie, Josh Weddle and Nick Watson were all selected by Sam Mitchell and his recruiting team.
"We're not going to sit back and wait for it to happen," Scott said.
"It's a really even competition... it's again, the competition continues to trend into being very tight, and so that's a challenge, but it presents opportunity as well, because it's not like it was decades ago, where it would take a really long time to rebuild a list.
"And there's plenty of evidence that around the competition of being able to do that. And now we go forward with optimism."
The "fresh base" in which the Bombers wish to launch from is set, which will only be aided by Scott's contract extension.
Now signed on until the end of 2027, the two-time premiership ex-Lion says the club has been "yearning for stability", which has seen seven coaches this century, comparatively to Hawthorn's three and Geelong's two.
"The club has approached me about extending for another year to show the stability that the club has been yearning for for a long time," Scott said.
"This (contract extension) hasn't been something that has been anywhere near my thinking.
"If the club think that for stability and unity, in a show of action, they want to put an extra year on my contract, then I'm open to that because I'm committed to what we're doing here.
"Like a lot of clubs, we're clearly going to be in the market to improve our list through all avenues.
"I don't think clubs who don't have stability are overly attractive.
"We've reset our football club over two years, and we want to show that we've got a stable base from which to build."
Essendon will have their chance to face Hawthorn on Friday at the MCG, which will test how far their list is from what they see as the benchmark.
