Teams each year try to target improvement of 10-15%. Several of the finals teams improved significantly above this ie Geelong, Hawthorn, Port and the Kangaroos.
Now the Eagles didn't win the premiership and now have to improve 10-15% (probably more given Geelongs dominance). This is without Judd - the acknowledged best player in the game. Chick and Ro Jo are gone and several players - Fletcher, Wirrapunda etc are slowing down considerably. Several others such as Hansen, Embley etc are starting to look a bit injury prone.
In a weak draft the top picks probably won't have an impact next year and Kennedy didn't play many games at all for a team that finished last.
Cousins may or may not play again. However, i'm sure most would agree as a drug addict (or former drug addict) at his age his best is probably behind him. Typically addicts aren't super reliable.
Kerr is a fantastic player but he now gets the number one tagger - Cornes, Sewell, Ling and Kerr tends to have a habit of hitting players on and off the field. I'd rather rely on Judd than Kerr.
Their forward line isn't super potent and the backline while good is heavily reliant on Glass and Hunter - any injuries their would be disastorous.
Look at Sydney for a team that played in 2 grand finals, but this year didn't improve their list.
West Coast next year without their franchise player will struggle to improve, thus they cannot win the premiership, thus their premiership window has closed.
Good team next year (great home ground advantage) but not great.
