As the 2025 AFL season nears, there will be players training ferociously throughout pre-season to perhaps finally break loose from the shackles of years of average performances and officially reach their potential.
Perhaps it's a top draft pick finally coming of age, as Mac Andrew and Tom De Koning showed glimpses of in 2024.
Or maybe it's a player nearing the age of their prime who has teetered on the edge of mediocrity for a while but finally excelled at the top flight. Think Tristan Xerri and Jake Waterman.
Last year, the hype around the potential of De Koning and Ben King ultimately delivered, while players such as Paddy Dow failed yet again to reach their potential estimated in their draft year.
A club's success is often off the back of unheralded players having surprisingly good years.
Hawthorn was fortunate to be on the end of multiple players enjoying breakout seasons in 2024, including first-time All-Australian Dylan Moore, trade recruit Massimo D'Ambrosio and veteran Sam Frost.
Likewise, premiers Brisbane enjoyed the sudden emergence of Kai Lohmann and the eventual fruition of Callum Ah Chee and Ryan Lester's potential.
Those clubs that struggled found their players with glimpses of stardom did not reach their potential. Max King was on and off the field with injuries which again hurt St Kilda's finals chances, while the ineptness of Collingwood's young talent failed to fill the holes of out-of-form veterans, resulting in a failed flag defence for the Pies.
So ahead of the new season, we've named eight players who will be desperate to have a breakout year to either save their career or propel their club further up the ladder in 2025.
Harrison Petty
Petty needs a breakout year for no reason other than to prove his own worth to the Demons.
After being swung from defence to the forward line, a return of just nine goals from 20 games in 2024 sees Petty move back into the backline in 2025.
Despite requesting a trade in 2023, the Demons, who are no stranger to playing hardball with their talent, re-signed Petty last season for another three years.
Now Petty has plenty to prove.
Without a definitive position and glimpse of good form, Petty will be eager to release the shackles of intense media criticism for his lacklustre years gone by with a breakout year in defence to aid Steven May and Jake Lever, and potentially help the Demons with a resurgent 2025 back into finals contention.
