All-in? Or "rebuilding"?

Here's a great article by the always excellent Damian Barrett of afl.com.au that gives superb thumbnail sketches of all eighteen teams in the Australian Football League in 2016.

ALL IN, ALL THE TIME? Geelong and Sydney, maybe Hawthorn and West Coast in recent years.

ALL IN FOR RIGHT NOW, ANYWAY? North Melbourne, Adelaide, and Western are all in this year, at least. The NM Kangaroos, at least, are working with a pretty good number of thirty-somethings (including the immortal Brent Harvey), so they're in it for a pretty short window...possibly.

BUILDING TOWARDS THE NOW...OR THE NEAR NOW? Greater Western Sydney has gone 18th, 18th, 16th, and 11th in their four years...and suddenly, they MAY (repeat: may) be already in their championship window. If so? They could be there a while.

BUILDING FOR THE (UN)FORSEEABLE FUTURE? Barrett has no mercy for the teams which use the excuse of "rebuilding" as a euphemism for "we don't have the horses to compete", regardless of whether that's their fault or not. (His point, of course, is that it usually IS.) That's Brisbane and Carlton (not much choice in either case, but it's going to be a while...), Melbourne and St. Kilda (who each started a couple of years ago, and darned if they aren't making progress!), and (according to the team suddenly) Collingwood, the "Yankees/Man U" of the AFL, who basically screwed up the present and decided to call it a rebuilding project. Yeah...

BUILT FOR THE NOW OR RECENT PAST, BUT... Woe to Fremantle (the most sudden collapse around), Port Adelaide and Richmond (the Tigers edged into second by losing to the Power last week), and ... well, that's three too many. These three are in trouble, with no real easy way out.

EXTRANEOUS CASES: There's Essendon, who has the WADA drug suspensions over its head. They could be in any of the above categories next year...we'll have to wait and see. And Gold Coast was supposed to be following GWS' trajectory a year in advance, except for scandals, injury plagues, and financial brou-ha-has. Could go any which way, depending on how the terrible trinity goes.

So, who fits which category in the NFL? The CFL? Let us know what you think!