Jezza - the clubs that are still rebuilding 5 or more years in are the clubs who have completely screwed it up and who - rightfully - have attracted the scorn and derision of the rest of the competition as a result.
Is that really your benchmark?
But even so, let's use Brisbane as the litmus test. Trying to be objective, I think that, despite win/losses and ladder position, Brisbane look like a side playing better footy than us. That is after 1 season with Fagen, picking up from the mess that Leppitsch left. If I was tracking our respective trajectories, I think they have shown more improvement this season than us, and I'd think Brisbane fans would be heartened by what they have seen so far.
Bribane's list has an average age of 22yrs 355 days (we have 24yrs 225 days), they have average of 49 games, we have an average of 78 games per player. They had an exodus of quality over the past 3 years largely due to the coaching setup previously - our movements have been deliberately planned and structured (Balow, Mzungu, De Boer etc) or foreseeable (Pav, Elvis). They have had 1 season under Fagen, our group is coming off a stable 5 year base under Lyon.
I don't think we compare well, given all those factors.