Although we are only a handful of days before the Melbourne Boxing Day Cricket Test, interest is already growing in the coming football season. Trades and drafts have been done, so we will first look alphabetically towards Adelaide.
List:
Adelaide’s level of improvement in 2025 was more than expected. This time last year we did forecast improvement that would see Adelaide knocking on the door to finals but, to their extra credit, they went from 15th in 2024 to 1st in 2025 before the finals began. And they did that with the significant losses of Rankine and Rachele during the important part of the season. In fact, the loss of those two, Rachele and Rankine, exposed Adelaide’s weakness, which was their lack of midfield power against the TOP teams in finals.
Now, this lack of midfield power should have been the focus of Adelaide’s recruiting a month or two ago, but it wasn’t. Apart from the aging but reliable Ah Chee, Adelaide chose to invest in their future key positions. Why?
Their premiership window has now begun. A look at their midfielders – Dawson, Neal-Bullen, Keays, Milera, Ah Chee and Laird – show all of these in the twilight zone. This is where Soligo, Taylor, Rachele, Berry, Pedlar, Cook, Nankervis and Peatling need to improve. But surely the focus should have been in this area! Maybe 2025 was a false dawn? 14 midfielders in total bodes well for Adelaide, so hopefully not.
For Adelaide, hopefully, with full seasons from their core players, including Rachele and Rankine, they can maintain their home and away presence and improve in the finals.
Select 23:
A team in a premiership window should largely go in with an unchanged core, and this will be the case with Adelaide. Their defence, their forwards, and their midfield are very experienced.
The still-developing Pedlar (23yo), with limited games in 2025, still averaged almost a goal and a half per game, and can make a bigger impact in 2026. Rachele and Rankine need to be in the team and fully fit during the finals. Ah Chee is an excellent and reliable player but he is moving to a new club and environment, so he’ll need half a season to settle in. The other one to watch is young Dowling (21yo), an inside midfielder who has shown talent, given limited opportunity.
Adelaide 2026 Select 23:
B: Laird, Worrell, Hinge
HB: Milera, Keane, Michalanney
C: Peatling, Berry, Cumming
HF: Ah Chee, Curtin, Rankine
F: Fogarty, Thilthorpe, Rachele
R: O’Brien, Dawson, Soligo
I: Dowling, Keys, Taylor, Pedlar, Walker
You can follow all the list updates as they become available at https://www.ozfootylistmanager.com/2026-lists-new.html
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About
It was 25 years ago that I began developing a model for analysing footy squad lists for the purpose of improving those lists into a premiership window. Since then, the model has been used to successfully predict premiership clubs and to improve either lop-sided or underdeveloped lists into premiership lists. Indeed, the model was used for an article that I had published as a double page spread in The Age 2005 Pre-Season magazine. Over the 25 years, I have analysed the annual lists of one particular club but have used it for other clubs upon request. It has always been on my bucket list to display the lists of all the clubs, using the model, which I've done since 2021 on my website - OzFootyListManager.com
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