They may have had forgettable seasons, but in the modern game, the also-rans always have plenty to look forward to, writes BEN CASANELIA

MELBOURNE
In what will be remembered as the year of the bloodless coup, 2008 has been tumultuous for everyone involved at the Melbourne Football Club.
And the Jim Stynes-led coup has become the single most important event at the football club, not only this year, but possibly this century.
Stynes has provided one thing former president Paul Gardner seemingly could not – hope.
Fans said as much when they pledged more than $2 million dollars at a Debt Demolition fundraiser carefully planned by Stynes to kick-start what he called a new “era” at Melbourne.
He also showed a ruthless side by sacking chief executive officer Paul McNamee three months after he was appointed because he felt McNamee’s plan headed in a polar opposite direction to his own. It was a bold move.
The club also announced a fixed training base at Casey Fields for next season in a significant move given the club’s transient training arrangements of recent seasons.
On the field, two players have emerged as 250-game players and another as an excitement machine capable of keeping the turnstiles ticking.
Rangy defender Colin Garland and last year’s No. 4 draft pick Cale Morton ooze class.
Garland earned a Rising Star nomination after a brilliant job nullifying Daniel Bradshaw in the Demons’ Round 14 win over Brisbane. He can play on talls or smalls, has excellent closing speed and is superbly balanced.
Morton averages 17.3 disposals a game. Six times he’s gathered more than 20 and can consider himself desperately unlucky not to have earned a Rising Star nomination.
Austin Wonoaeamirri is pure excitement. In just his fifth senior game the 19-year-old earned a Rising Star nomination for his four-goal heroics that spearheaded the Demons to a remarkable come-from-behind win over Fremantle after trailing by 51 points at half time.
He’s already a cult hero. As is Stynes – for the second time, after a distinguished career as a player. The quartet between them have at least made the outlook brighter for Demon fans.

WEST COAST
Like a land beacon on a stormy sea, Ben McKinley has shone for the Eagles throughout 2008. At the start of the year, with one game to his name, the 21-year-old was a virtual nobody. By mid-season he was listed in a Melbourne newspaper alongside All-Australian ruckman Dean Cox, skipper Darren Glass and last year’s top draft pick Chris Masten in a group of six Eagles off limits to other clubs at season’s end.
It was quite a jump for the former Northern Knights star, drafted at pick 29 in 2005.
From nowhere the powerfully built 184cm forward who plays “tall” announced himself to the football world.
In the Eagles’ Round 4 hammering at the hands of Sydney, McKinley put his hand up to kick four goals. A week later he earned a Rising Star nomination for a five-goal effort in the four-goal loss to Port Adelaide. A fortnight ago he was the architect of West Coast’s upset win over Essendon with a seven-goal haul opposed to Bomber veteran Dustin Fletcher.
So good has the full forward been that the club’s leading goalkicker for the past two seasons, Quinten Lynch, has had to find a new role playing onball.
The move has sparked Lynch, and allowed McKinley to gain valuable game time inside forward 50. Suddenly, he is the man the Eagles are hoping to build a new dynasty around.

FREMANTLE
After 15 rounds all Fremantle had to hang its hat on was a pair of Rising Star nominations for Rhys Palmer (Round 5) and Garrick Ibbotson (Round) 9.
First-year coach Mark Harvey had endured a torturous time – on and off the field – discipline was an issue, the team had lost nine games by less than nine points, and players recruited to help the premiership push were exiting in droves through retirement as the side languished near the bottom of the table.
The year looked destined to be the most embarrassing in the club’s history in the wake of considerable pre-season hype and expectation.
But thanks in no small part to the perseverance of Palmer and Ibbotson, and the steely resolve of Harvey, the Dockers have salvaged something from the mire.
The 19-year-old Palmer, drafted pick seven last year, has shown himself a star of the future. Averaging 17 disposals a week, including a 31-touch effort in the away win over Port Adelaide, the left footer has stepped into footy like a 100-game player.
So has midfield partner Ibbotson. After playing one game in 2007, the 20-year-old has averaged 17.5 possessions from 18 games this year and has played with the enthusiasm, speed and skill the side has so lacked in the middle.
His Rising Star nomination following the side’s Telstra Dome loss to Carlton was well deserved.
Harvey may also have salvaged his coaching career.
Seemingly out of answers five weeks ago, the former Essendon champion has been able to galvanise his young to a meaningful late-season push.
The Dockers have won four of their past five games – it could have been five if not for a four-point loss to Sydney – and faces Richmond this week in a real test of its ability to take its form on the road.
But far from falling apart, Fremantle has held things together, a credit to Harvey and the commitment of his younger squad members.

PORT ADELAIDE
In many ways, this has been a lost season for Port Adelaide.
If it remains in 14th position, Port will complete the biggest fall from grace for a side having played off in the previous year’s Grand Final. (Collingwood currently holds the record after falling to 13th in the wake of its 2003 Grand Final loss to Brisbane.)
The year that cannot end fast enough for the proud club.
Only five players – Paul Stewart, Mitch Farmer, Nick Salter, Ryan Williams and Matthew Westhoff – have made debuts for a total of 17 games combined. (Stewart has played nine of those.)
So short of options was coach Mark Williams that Salter was plucked from the SANFL reserves to play against St Kilda.
For the fist time in years Williams has been the target of media criticism for his ways.
One long-time South Australian football watcher questioned the coach’s autocratic style.
“The face and mouth of Port Adelaide is strictly its coach. And with the coaching staff, the coach surrounds himself with home-town boys. There's Matthew Primus, Adam Kingsley and Tony McGuinness. The only outsider is former Saint Jason Cripps. The question that has to be asked is whether Williams, who is now in his 10th season as senior coach, gets challenged by his underlings,” he said.
While Williams is safe for next season, another year like this will have him under fire to hold the job. Next year looms as the biggest challenge of his career.

ESSENDON
When the Bombers lost their eighth straight game to slump to 2-9 after 11 rounds, talkback radio was flooded with angry Essendon fans crying “I told you so”.
At the time of Matthew Knights’ appointment, fans were divided as to the wisdom of appointing a man many felt lacked the credentials, and profile, to lead such a proud club.
By Round 17, in the wake of Essendon’s blistering win over Collingwood, the radio waves were littered with callers talking up the Bombers’ finals prospects.
Knights, somehow, turned his battling side full circle in the face of a mounting injury toll that at one stage limited selection to 26 players – including a Knights-led club suspension of Andrew Lovett that highlighted the coaches’ tough stance on discipline.
Ironically, all out attack – the tactic for which Knights was criticised earlier in the year after his side was thrashed four weeks in a row– has been the catalyst.
From Rounds 12-19, the Bombers went 6-2 with an average of 19 goals per game.
Knights’ belief in his plan, and his players, has been unwavering.
Those to respond in kind include Round 17 Rising Star nomination Kyle Reimers, utility Sam Lonergan and young dasher Leroy Jetta.
Orange boots and all, Reimers has the potential to be a true star of the game, while Lonergan has speed and plays with a sense of dependability. Disappointing early, Jetta has emerged from his shell and looks a dangerous playmaker. The Bombers can’t allow him to return to his native Western Australia. 
With Knights at the helm, it’s unlikely. His leadership this year has been first class.

RICHMOND
After the disastrous loss to Adelaide a fortnight ago, Richmond coach Terry Wallace was bold enough to suggest if the club didn’t play finals in 2009 he would be looking for a new job – a brave statement for the coach of a team that’s played six finals in 26 years and only three in the past 13.
While some viewed it as an off-the-cuff remark, on the evidence this year it could be construed a calculated appraisal of the list’s development.
A win over West Coast in Round 15 signalled the Tigers’ sixth win of the season and doubled its total victories of 2007. Subsequent wins over Essendon and Brisbane took the side to eight and a half for the year and pushing towards the top eight.
While the win-loss ratio is important, it’s the way in which victories are fashioned that paints a clearer picture for years ahead.
For the first time in memory the Tigers have a viable structure.
Will Thursfield, Luke McGuane and Kelvin Moore (probably the club’s most improved player) have emerged as the spine in defence.
Up forward Jack Riewoldt has shone at times and will improve his consistency with experience, Mitch Morton is developing and Cleve Hughes has shown glimpses.
But the man everyone wants to talk about at Tigerland is Trent Cotchin.
From the instant last year’s No. 2 draft pick took the field for the first time in Round 8 against Geelong, he oozed class.
The player some are already touting as a future captain earned a Rising Star nomination in his fifth appearance and has averaged 16 possessions a game – remarkable given he took no part in pre-season because of an ankle injury carried over from last year’s TAC Cup finals.
Already likened to Joel Selwood and Bryce Gibbs, Cotchin has all the tools required to be a midfield star – balance, skill, awareness, and strength through the core.
He together with Brett Deledio,Moore, Thursfield and Riewoldt represent the future. It’s a quality group that Wallace can feel justified in staking his own career upon.

CARLTON
Finally Carlton fans are happy.
After years of drifting in the wilderness the Blues have a young side on the move, a clear structure, an emerging first-year coach – with a pleasant disposition – and a stockpile of top draft picks needing only time to reach their potential.
While Round 18 Rising Star nomination Shaun Grigg, Steven Browne, Matthew Kreuzer and skipper Chris Judd have all been huge positives for the Blues, the man creating the biggest storm is 2006 No. draft pick Bryce Gibbs.
Still only 19 – he doesn’t turn 20 until March next year – the young South Australian has thrived in 2008.
Each week, it seems, he gets better.
Statistics say as much. Last year, playing predominantly across half back, he averaged 13 touches a game. Only twice did he have 20-plus disposals.
In 2008 the classy ball winner has bettered 20 possessions 10 times. He averages 20 disposals a game and 25 in the past five weeks. Football commentators have been unanimous in labelling him a star.
While total possessions can be misleading, in Gibbs’ case they are not. Not only a brilliant ball winner, he is a superb ball user, has beautiful balance and can win contested footy. And, he’s durable, missing only one game since debuting in Round 1 last year.
Some would say it’s to be expected from a No. 1 draft pick but few would have expected his development to track as fast as it has in the second half of this season.
It’s a sign of how good he’s been that he’s been the shining light in a year that’s had many flicker for a Carlton side on the up.
Barring serious injury, he’ll be a 250-game player.     

BRISBANE LIONS
If Brisbane fails to resign captain Jonathan Brown, anything else that’s transpired in 2008 will pale into insignificance.
While there have been some success stories at the Lions this season, the continuing will-he-won’t-he saga has overshadowed much of what’s been happening on the field.
One man doing his best to rise above it is emerging centre half back Joel Patfull.
Taken pick 56 at the 2004 draft after two unsuccessful years on Port Adelaide’s rookie list, the 23-year-old has gone from strength to strength since joining the Lions.
Since debuting in Round 8, 2006, the 190cm defender has played 56 of a possible 57 games and this year stamped himself as one of the game’s young emerging defenders.
Under the guidance of former triple premiership Brisbane defender Justin Leppitsch, Patfull has answered the challenge despite being thrown some of the toughest assignments in football.
Averaging 10 possessions, three marks and two tackles per game, the defender ranks second only to full back Daniel Merrett in one-percenters at the club and is top five for rebounds from 50.
While he still has a way to go, along with Merrett, the pair look set for long and fruitful careers.
While nothing can take away Patfull’s development in 2008, Brown’s signature holds the key as to how the season will be viewed by the club and its fans.

BEN CASANELIA