‘Destination club’ ladder revealed: Every AFL team ranked 1-18… and impact on big 2025 trades

The AFL player movement period is just weeks away, with clubs preparing to lure and farewell players during the off-season.

So what makes some clubs more attractive to opposition players than others?

In the latest episode of the Midweek Tackle digital-only show ‘Tackle The Headline’, Herald Sun and CODE Sports reporter Jon Ralph ranks every club one to 18 in order of destination status – and explains to Lauren Wood and Josh Barnes how it could impact this year’s trade period.

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Possible NT team to be AFL's 20th club | 01:59

HOW THE RANKINGS WERE DETERMINED – AND THE TOP THREE CLUBS

Jon Ralph says: “It was about things like premiership window, wildcard attraction, the culture of that football club, the location – which is really important for some of them – and it came down to one to 18.

“So clubs like Geelong (No.1) have got it all: Premiership window, bit of surf, bit of sand, farm life if you want to be someone like Tom Hawkins.

“Brisbane (No.2) has had an outstanding change over the last 12 years. The go-home five, of course – they couldn’t keep anyone there. (Now) they’ve been able to attract the cream of the crop with their injury prevention, the surf and the sand only an hour down to the Gold Coast and players like Charlie Cameron and Josh Dunkley and Lachie Neale – absolutely superb.

“Then someone like Hawthorn (No.3) is fascinating. They’re coming with a bullet. They’ve got the smart coach, they’ve got Hokball, they have fun and you look at the Dingley facilities – which they could move into in the next six weeks – they are absolutely outstanding. I know people have said ‘it’s down near Seaford and Frankston’, it’s not. Those players will live in places like East Brighton, potentially even Moorabbin and they’ll have an absolute ball down there.”

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THE BOTTOM THREE CLUBS

Jon Ralph says: “The other end of the list, which is always harder, St Kilda, West Coast and North Melbourne are the bottom-three clubs.

“West Coast (No.17) should have a point of appeal in luring players back, but they just haven’t got a great record of doing so.

“St Kilda (No.16), we know the history of them throwing so many big dollars at players. But I just thought when Josh Battle moved over to Hawthorn, even though there was no real reason, it was just the vibe of the thing – I thought that was worrying. They’re working so hard to try and change that.

“North Melbourne (No.18) … they’ve got a nice facility there, but they haven’t really got a wildcard, not in the premiership window, the culture’s just OK. They’ve brought a lot of players in, but at massive inflated salaries.

“Everyone gets players, it’s the capacity to bring them in on lesser money – or when three or four clubs want them, you get your man. That’s what Hawthorn’s been so good at recently.”

HOW ‘DESTINATION STATUS’ COULD IMPACT 2025 TRADE PERIOD

Jon Ralph says: “Someone like Sam Draper, who might be on something like $700,000 to $800,000 over four years at Essendon, he might be getting $1 million somewhere else. Those other places (Lions and Crows), right now, are in the premiership window – and in the case of someone like Brisbane, they’ve got outstanding injury prevention.

“You look at Essendon and right now, I’ve said the wildcard is ‘past history’, not current history … Their injury prevention is not great, The Hangar is a facility out in the middle of nowhere basically, it hasn’t got its unique charms.

“That’s why someone like Zach Merrett might be thinking of all those different things and saying ‘I want to win premierships, I want an elite coach – and right now I don’t tick too many of those boxes’, even though he said on AFL 360 he wants to stay.

Zach Merrett 'all in' with Bombers | 01:22

“And someone like Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera … Port Adelaide was low down in terms of that destination ladder, but they’ve really built themselves up again. Yes, they’ve lost some players like Dan Houston back to Melbourne, but I think he (Wanganeen-Milera) is every chance to get to Port Adelaide. They (the Saints) would love him to stay, but even just his dramas over the last few weeks … and Jase Burgoyne, they’re really tight.

“I think we all would’ve said for someone like Tom De Koning ‘he desperately wants to play in front of big crowds’, but that’s not really the case. I think he wants to be in a team that can win a premiership – and he’s really asking his manager: ‘What’s happening with Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera?’ He’s really keen for him to be there, he doesn’t want to be rucking to someone who’s not ‘Nas’.

“Zak Butters, you look at the clubs he’s looking at – the teams like Western Bulldogs and Geelong – they’re right up there again.

“All this really factors into the ‘disequalisation ladder’ or the lack of competitive balance. It’s something the AFL is really trying to work on. These teams right up there, they’ve had a lot of premiership success – or close to it – and now they’re getting the best players again. You really feel for the North Melbourne’s and West Coast’s of the world, who are going to be stuck down the ladder for a very long time to come.”

RALPH’S ‘DESTINATION CLUB’ LADDER

1. Geelong Cats

2. Brisbane

3. Hawthorn

4. Collingwood

5. Sydney Swans

6. Adelaide Crows

7. Fremantle

8. Port Adelaide

9. Western Bulldogs

10. Carlton

11. Essendon

12. Gold Coast

13. Richmond

14. GWS Giants

15. Melbourne

16. St Kilda

17. West Coast Eagles

18. North Melbourne

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