It's hard to evaluate relative to other teams, because few people really know the squad depth of all 18 clubs.
I do have a sense of the strength of the team on the park against Brisbane last round, and the strength of the 2013 Freo GF team (which in many years would have been good enough to win a premiership).
We’re a long way off.
There is a reality where the current Freo squad could fluke a premiership in an open year, but in that reality Fyfe was back to his Brownlow best, Bennell was setting Subi alight, A Pearce was controlling the air in the backline, Ballas was having a throwback season up forward, one of Tabs or Apeness was providing a genuine target up front, one of the young kids (Weller, Tucker, Balic) took a huge step up, and Lyon got the most out of some maligned role players (Sheridan, Sutcliffe, Hendrix).
Those things didn’t eventuate. We did get some good outcomes - Johnno has performed well, Blakely has improved, Neale has proven last season wasn’t a fluke, and Sandi has contributed - but we’ve had more things go against us than for us.
There are many possible reasons for that - bad coaching, bad medical staff, injury prone players, bad luck – but the team that is lobbed on the park from week-to-week just isn’t really that good.
But all of the things listed above could happen in 2018.