At the end of Round 17 last season, Essendon were sitting fourth on the ladder eyeing a top-four berth.
In 2023, they were fifth on the ladder in Round 17, also hoping to get the double chance in the finals series.
Both years the Bombers bombed to miss the finals completely in complete capitulations.
Suddenly in 2025, they are undergoing a rebuild with the mantra and company line surrounding debuts, amount of youth and blooding players in new positions.
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But just because you are playing young kids, doesn't mean the future is bright - just ask North Melbourne and West Coast, who have been selecting a lot of youth in recent seasons.
Essendon does possess dynamic forward Nate Caddy, who looks like being a bona fide star in the competition imminently, and Archie Roberts, who many believe should be the Rising Star favourite.
But several of their recent top draft picks would be considered as failures currently and while some of these players have time to get their careers going, there is no guarantee after the starts they have had.
In 2020, the Bombers drafted Nik Cox, Archie Perkins and Zach Reid with selections eight, nine and 10 respectively - with the three first-round picks supposed to play a key role in the club's future.
Sadly Cox looks set to be forced into retirement with concussion issues, Perkins has showed flashes but ultimately is still often being used as sub and Reid finally got on the park this season after significant injury issues but has been struck down by body problems once again.
Ben Hobbs, Essendon's first round selection at 13 in 2021, has been in-and-out of the team in recent years and is only averaging 15.2 disposals a game as a midfielder this season.
High hopes were pinned on Elijah Tsatas with pick five in the 2022 draft, but the midfielder has only played 15 games in a two-and-half seasons and has been consistently linked with a move away from Tullamarine.
While there is still time for these players to succeed, there is no doubt the Bombers will be concerned with the rate of development among their top selections.
It's not all doom-and-gloom for Essendon with Caddy and Roberts looking like being elite footballers going forward, while 2024 first-round draft pick Isaac Kako has shown enough so far to suggest he will be a handful for opposition in the future.
There is also a legion of other talent that have been selected for games this season that the jury will still be out on for a while, such as Archer Day-Wicks, Angus Clarke, Zak Johnson, Luamon Lual, Lewis Hayes, Archer May and Vigo Visentini.
The concern for the Bombers is that, at this current point in time, there is so much uncertainty around the development of their younger players and the future could be painful if more don't emerge as consistent senior players.
You can play kids and peddle the rebuild line as much as you want, but these talents need to turn into solid players at a minimum for a rebuild to be successful.