The countdown to the 2013 AFL season continues. Here is part four of my 2013 AFL season preview, which looks at young teams such as Port Adelaide, Richmond Tigers, as well as premiers, Sydney Swans.

For those who want to see how I think your team will go in 2013, follow the links to parts one, two and three.

Port Adelaide Power

Unfortunately for the proud Port Adelaide Power, Ken Hinkley or Kochie can not save them from the depth of the AFL this year.

Port have plenty to be positive about for years to come, such as plenty of young assets to develop, and the arrival of highly-rated Suns assistant Ken Hinkley, but this year will be a learning year for the young side.

There are plenty of things to like about the Power. They have a good young squad, and can also be compared to the expansion clubs, that in a few years time, with the right management, they will have a ripping young group nearing the top of the ladder each year.

The Power’s recruiting was not bad also this year, bringing in plenty more young studs they can work on, as well as Angus Monfries from Essendon.

They also brought in a highly-rated assistant coach from the Gold Coast Suns, Ken Hinkley, to lead the troops for 2013. Hinkley helped work to rebuild Geelong and was around for the 2007 and 2009 premierships, and 2008 grand final appearance, so he knows what a winning club is like.

Off the field, the position of chairman has gone to David Koch, who can open a few off-the-field doors for the club and bring some attention in. Plenty of positives there.

But there’s just about one common negative between cellar-dwellers of all sports: time. Time is the major barrier here for Port as well. They have the right leadership in place in Hinkley, but the squad needs to develop, as well as change.

Right now, Port doesn’t have the right mix of veterans to go with youth, and the veterans they do have on their list (such as Kane Cornes) may not have many years of AFL relevancy left. This season, Port needs to scout viable vets that can help lead their young squad for a possible run at the premiership in a few years time.

Until Port get this competitive team together, they will keep getting defeated by GWS, and they will stay the worst team in the AFL.

Unfortunately for Port Adelaide fans, as promising as their team is, it isn’t an immediate winner. At all. There’s still a long way to go for the team to be a top-eight team, perhaps even the longest time in the AFL.

However that should not be cause for concern. Port do have a good team going forward and if they can develop their squad well over the next five or so years, perhaps they’ll have that premiership squad.

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Prediction: 18th

Richmond Tigers

Can this be it? Can this be the year that the Richmond Tigers finally put it together and make the top eight for the first time since 2001? Yes I say!

Richmond have had their core together for a few years now, and are properly developing the other youngsters around them. They also did some good recruiting in the off-season, probably having one of the top off-seasons in the league.

They also added well to their coaching staff, bringing in premiership coach Mark “Chocco” Williams to help out Damien Hardwick with his lacklustre coaching. All in all, this needs to be the season Richmond break through for their long-awaited finals appearance.

Take your pick out of any of the positives for Richmond this season. The great recruits, both on and off the field, the new leadership (Trent Cotchin) or the fact that the core has been together just that right amount of time to finally make a push.

They probably made one of the best recruiting drives this off-season, getting Chris Knight, Troy Chaplain, and Aaron Edwards. While none of those names pop out at you, that’s what’s good about them.

The Tigers have a good core of stars, not one that they need to bolster or upgrade. They have picked some perfect role players to fit into their best 22 each week, and have created some good depth.

They also added Williams, a former head coach with premiership experience to their coaching staff. This is a good addition, considering Damian Hardwick has already proved his incompetence.

All of the above factors are setting Richmond up for a cracking season which should see them make that break into the top eight.

Even in a team like Richmond, there is always potential for things to go wrong. While they have a good core, it is a very young one with a grand total of zero games of finals experience.

Their new recruits come from Adelaide, Port and North, and therefore won’t bring too much big match experience either.

And all that experience that Chocco brings in will count for nought if the team itself doesn’t produce. While Richmond’s first finals run probably won’t bother too many, they have the potential to surprise, and it should be a good game or two of experience to build hopefully a string of playoff runs.

And while Richmond have occasionally shown the ability to blitz very strong and unsuspecting teams (such as the Swans, by five goals), they have also routinely shown the ability to stink it up and play like a typical Richmond side.

This inability to get out of their own way and drop easy ones will also need to be addressed for a team with finals aspirations.

Richmond have had a tonne of potential for a few years now, and 2013 is no different. They may have their best squad for a few years in 2013.

While Jack Riewoldt and Brett Deledio are only 24 and 25, they aren’t getting any younger, and will be seeing the best few years coming right up.

So if Richmond want to capitalise off these players, they’ll need to start winning a lot, very soon. Or they may see themselves again having to blow it up and rebuild, which is something which Tigers fans probably wish they weren’t used to.

Prediction: 7th

St. Kilda Saints

To report my predictions for the Saints in 2013 disappoints me, because I like the Saints, and wish I didn’t have to say anything of the sort.

But I think 2013 will be as tough a year for the team as 2012. The Saints do have a good team together, but in 2012 they proved it was not good enough to make the finals, and in the off-season they did little to help the cause.

In fact, if anything they took a step backwards, losing one of their best players Brendan Goddard. This lack of assertion should prove for a fairly bleak 2013 for the boys from the beach.

One could argue the Saints had realised all of the above long before I had. Right now they’re geared up with a young squad, much like North and Fremantle, which is a team that could develop into a contender in a few years time.

In the off-season, the Saints added to their potentially devastating team, adding Trent Dennis-Lane and Thomas Hickey, as well as mature-aged recruit Thomas Lee, who came to them from Claremont.

They hope to develop the tall-marking forward into a integral part of their group the way they did last year with mature-added recruits such as Ahmed Saad and Terry Milera. The Saints are starting to develop a good young team, and if they can recruit some more veteran presence next off-season, they can make a push to the finals again.

Unfortunately for the Saints, much like many other teams in the league, they have the stock problem of not enough wise veteran presence on their roster. And unless their squad does a lot of maturing very quickly, the Saints will unfortunately probably miss out on the finals again this year.

They will be beaten out by teams such as Fremantle, who have the right mix.

As long with their slight list issues, Scott Watters probably hasn’t been the coach the Saints want him to be, which is a surprise, considering the pedigree he comes from.

He was the orchestrator of the Magpie defence that helped them win the 2010 flag. He also coached Subiaco to back-to-back flags in 2007 and 2008.

While he will probably develop into a good coach in more years with the club, that will not help them win immediately, something Saints fans have developed an affinity for over the last few years.

The Saints are one of those teams that haven’t been able to get over the hump the last few years, despite three shots at a grand final. And unfortunately, for their very patient fans, they may not even get over the finals hump this year.

However, for the fans, there is no reason to be discouraged. The Saints have a good young squad together that should be back in the hunt in just a few years time. The front office has shown the ability to build a good team, and it still showing that, and for that very reason alone, patience should again be a virtue for St. Kilda fans.

Prediction: 12th

Sydney Swans

The Sydney Swans must be feeling on top of the world right now. They just won the 2012 AFL premiership, and now they have landed one of the highest sought-after players of the off-season, Kurt Tippett.

While he will miss half the season due to suspension, Sydney have a more than capable team that is surely too experienced to endure any kind of post-premiership slump.

While many believe defending the premiership is harder than gaining it, the Swans should put together another ripping season that will see them right in the mix come the end of the year.

While the Swans are by no means lacking in the forwards or ruckmen department, both those positions will be bolstered with Tippett’s arrival in round 11.

They will truly need him against the Adelaide Crows, which also will be one of the biggest matches of the year.

And if there are in fact any attitude problems present in Tippett (which reeks of a media contrivance), the Bloods culture should do him good.

When other teams were hesitant to take a “chance” on Tippett, the Swans happily cashed in, and will reap the rewards for years to come.

While adding Tippett will assure a good young building block in the next few years, there’s no ignoring the fact that this legendary team is getting older.

Questions were asked about Jude Bolton as soon as the grand final ended, of whether he would go around again, and while he answered in the affirmative, there’s no doubt the same questions will be asked again come the end of the Swans’ 2013 campaign, whenever that shall be.

Many of the Swans’ best players are 30 and over, such as Rhyce Shaw, Ryan O’Keefe, Jude Bolton, Ted Richards, Martin Mattner and dual Brownlow medalist Adam Goodes. When these players start to drop off, the Swans better have a good youth contingent ready to go, or things could get ugly fast.

Last year the Swans confirmed their core as legendary, by winning their second grand final. And there’s no reason they shouldn’t experience similar success this year.

Perhaps this is the year where people will finally count the Swans as premiership contenders. Or perhaps they will fly under the radar again, like their past two premiership experiences, and take everyone by surprise in September. Because they’re still certainly tooled up to do that.

Prediction: 2nd

West Coast Eagles

While the West Coast Eagles didn’t make too many booming off-season moves, they perhaps achieved something better than that, with stars Mark LeCras and Mark Nicoski coming back into the side. Their presence in the side could’ve arguably helped them go one or two better in 2012, and hopefully for Eagles fans, they can help them do that in 2013.

They also added dynamic midfielder Sharrod Wellingham from Collingwood to take a little bit of the edge off from young players such as Andrew Gaff. All in all, the Eagles had a pretty good off-season without doing all that much.

The positives for the Eagles are everywhere – they have plenty of great, young players starting to make the 22 on a weekly basis, such as Ashton Hams, Andrew Gaff (who played all premiership games) and even Murray Newman, who started to string together a few positive games at the end of the season.

No doubt they’ll be looking to blood a few more new cubs in season 2013. This year, they also get back top-flight forward Mark LeCras and veteran Mark Nicoski, who will each add plenty of goals to the Eagles’ forwardline.

It will be interesting to see how they integrate the two with the much-improved Jack Darling, who upped his production by over 30 goals with both players out of the side. Also coming to Perth this season is Sharrod Wellingham from the Magpies.

A West Australian native, Wellingham, who last year averaged 19 possessions per game, will add even more pace to the Eagles’ midfield.

You know you have a good team together when you have good problems. And the Eagles’ flaws are certainly flaws to be reckoned with. Due to the exceptional play of Jack Darling last season, the Eagles now have two alpha dogs in the forwardline, along with LeCras.

In the last season each player played, they kicked a total of 100 goals, and that should make the Eagles’ front pack one of the best in the league. However, in each of those seasons, each player had nearly the whole forwardline to work with.

Now they will have to share and make time, space and learn to play for each other. Add in Mark Nicoski, and one player will probably under-achieve this season. Perhaps it’s back off to the backline for Nicko.

However, too much depth is always a good problem, if any, to have, and if they can work out how to play off each other, similar to Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas, the results could be eerily good.

The Eagles would be pretty confident going into season 2013, with two of their best players coming into their squad that made the semi-finals the previous year.

Despite the return of LeCras and Nicoski, the Eagles have plenty of other players to bank on as well, including new star recruits Sharrod Wellingham, as well as “potential” recruits Jamie Cripps and Cale Morton.

All in all, this season could have West Coast going one better than the semis. Scratch that, it should have.

Prediction: 4th

Western Bulldogs

Two proud clubs, the Melbourne Demons and the Western Bulldogs, should be battling it out for the 14th spot on the ladder. And perhaps it’s just wishful thinking, but I think the Dogs can grab that spot.

While none of the recruits pop out at you, the Doggies are slowly but surely building a good team, perhaps not as far off qualifying for the finals as others may think.

If they buy a bit more experience and a bit more class, perhaps they’ll be back in the finals quicker than expected.

Sometimes you have to look at the positives: the Bulldogs do have plenty of potential on their list. They have plenty of current and future All-Australian talent, as well as plenty of role players to fit around them.

If they can develop further as a team, and add some more star power, they can possibly develop a championship-calibre culture, such as that of the Lions, the Swans and the Cats, all recent premiership teams.

Time really is the battle here for the Doggies, and if they can wait out a few years from their potential to blossom into reality, and build effectively around that, it’ll hard to not make the finals with their potential.

That being said, the Dogs can’t book themselves on the waiting game, such as teams like the mid-00s Bombers, who slowly faded into irrelevancy. The Doggies need to have a proactive future, making active moves to bring in facets of the game they lack, class especially.

Adam Cooney used to ooze class before his degenerative knees assured the Dogs are harder road back to relevancy.

While he still has a bit of swag left in his step, he’s hardly the player the Dogs wanted to star in a string of finals appearances.

However, there are plenty of players on their list that they will hope can do that. If they can continue to surround players like, Boyd, Cross, Wallis, Dahlhaus and Griffin with the right kind of support cast, or trade up for a bigger superstar, they may find themselves on their way back to the finals.

Unfortunately, competing this year is more or less out of the question.

Yes the Bulldogs have plenty of potential, but it is all too well known that potential does not win premierships. The Bulldogs road back to the finals will no doubt to be hard, but they have to take it one step at a time.

For the time being, they can look to aspire to teams such as the Lions, who are slowly making their way back into the league off the back of one superstar and plenty of young guns, which is an achievable vision for the Dogs.

Whether they’ll beat Melbourne out for that spot on the ladder will tell us if they’re on the right track or not.

Prediction: 14th