Like, they’re not great but are they that much worse than the Frampton, Mihocek, Moore, Howe key position combo of last years premiership team?Nobody said the list is shit but it's very difficult to look at a key forward trio of Lord/Georgiades/Marshall and a key back trio of Aliir/Zerk-Thatcher/Ratugolea, as well as a ruck division of honest toilers, and see 'premiership'.
People chronically underrate the significance of losing peak Jonas and the effective losses of Dixon and McKenzie. The first two were All Australian level players at their best and I'd argue McKenzie was too albeit one of the most underrated players in the competition so never actually in that discussion.
The replacements are nowhere near as good and it shows, especially in the forward line with 'Hot Toddy' bordering on being an embarrassment for an $800k key forward and the other two very much still developing.
If a game plan and system is developed around them by a good coach then the sky is the limit.
Unfortunately we have Ken Hinkley.