Who is the AFL’s destination club? Every team ranked 1-18

 Adelaide is coming with a bullet, having hit home on big deals to secure captain Jordan Dawson and Gold Coast’s Izak Rankine in recent years. And there's two other factors luring stars back to SA.

Landing the biggest fish on the AFL market came down to using the smallest piece of bait.

As the Brisbane Lions attempted to lure Lachie Neale all the way across the country in late 2018 they had plenty to offer.

A fat long-term contract, elite injury prevention, a young side on the rise and a quality coach in Chris Fagan.

And yet for Neale and partner Julie, the little things mattered.

“The first things they talked to us about was what they did off the field,” Neale’s manager Tim Lawrence tells Code Sports.

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE RALPHY’S RANKINGS OF THE DESTINATION CLUBS

Neale joined the Lions in a bombshell deal in 2018. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

“We were just super impressed with what Andrew Crowell and his team did in the player development space. There had been all this talk about the Brisbane ‘go-home five’.

“But it was the little things. They had a social network so the wives and partners could connect. If you needed a babysitter they could find one. Leonie Swann (wife of CEO Greg) would jump on it and help the girls look for rentals or connect Jules with hairdressers (having owned her own business in Perth). They had a creche for the girls.

“Then at Thursday night training in the pre-season they would put on BBQs with the wives and kids watching training.”

Crowell’s official title is now head of welfare and wellbeing, while former Lions finance department staffer Amanda Webb now works in player welfare and football administration.

“Amanda is a beauty,” says Lawrence.

“She goes around and helps the partners with new-borns. She will pre-cook meals for the week. When it came to the footy stuff, we could determine that ourselves. Where the list was going, did it have potential?

“The best clubs look after their players. Look at Sydney and Geelong and Port Adelaide and Brisbane. There is a correlation between taking care of their players and winning. Their players want to be there. At the end of the day lots of players get paid a lot of money to play footy. They want to win but they also want to enjoy being at their club.”

It is remarkable to think that the Lions have come so far in 12 years, since that fateful 2013 trade period where Elliot Yeo, Jared Polec, Sam Docherty, Billy Longer and Patrick Karnezis all departed.

Now Brisbane has its pick of the market — Neale, ex-Adelaide star Charlie Cameron, Dogs premiership hero Josh Dunkley, Tom Doedee, with Joe Daniher having recently retired.

This year the club is making a similar pitch to Oscar Allen, who is open to making a similar journey to the Lions.

It is another reminder to clubs that their die is not cast.

Clubs can change their fortunes by getting their culture right, by improving their facilities, by making a methodical march up the ladder.

An $18 million salary cap means clubs will always have cash to lure players.

North Melbourne in recent years has added Luke Parker, Zac Fisher, Griffin Logue, Jaidyn Stephenson, Caleb Daniel, Darcy Tucker and many more.

So perhaps the true meaning of a ‘Destination Club’ is the capacity to land the very best for cut-price rates.

Hawthorn was finally able to claim that moniker by securing Josh Battle from down the road in Moorabbin for a deal of under $800,000 a season because it had a young, exciting list which played fun football under a cutting-edge coach.

Geelong is the ultimate destination club because it ticks almost every single box.

The club missed on Jacob Hopper in part because he was keen to play in the big smoke at Richmond.

But they used their edge-of-the-country advantage to lure back local boy Patrick Dangerfield and country boy Jeremy Cameron while hoping to use the same appeal for former Mooroopna Cat Clayton Oliver.

Bailey Smith is the ultimate inner city boy but the club’s location out of the Melbourne fishbowl helped, as did its work-life balance, elite senior coach and desperation for him to play inside mid.

So which clubs get it right through premiership windows, strong cultures or sometimes just wildcard factors no one else can replicate?

Here are the AFL’s 18 clubs ranked in order of their destination status.

Originally published as Who is the AFL’s destination club? Every team ranked 1-18