Success is a premiership. All this talk of top 4 blah blah blah, before we know it, Serong and Brayshaw will be 32 and we'll be rebuilding, again.
No one remembers the "almost" teams except to say that they squandered their talent.
Team cohesion, skills and grit. Get those three sorted and the premierships will come. In many respects this year might well be one of the best years to be going for the premiership. A bunch of clubs are rebuilding, swans are psychologically damaged after the GF, cats could fall off(although they're looking like the ones to beat), blues are facing a bunch of injuries, Fagan has got a cloud over his head at Brissy, Saints are living in a dreamworld about how good their list is. Clubs like Freo, Port, and the Giants should be going into this season thinking this could be the year of opportunity.