FREMANTLE is in a mess, with key staff exiting and a gun player wanting out.

Port Adelaide is asking big questions of itself, the early answers not shedding sufficient light.

The Western Bulldogs, just two years after winning a premiership, are again in mixed-messaging mode and about to end their connection with another once-loved son.

Adelaide can’t keep key players and some of the ones it will retain are still angered by what Crows officials allowed happen to them before and even during the just-completed season.

Gold Coast has had three captains in its eight-year AFL life. Two of them have walked out, the third not yet prepared to commit to walking back in.

St Kilda has allowed itself to reach a stage where it is unsellable – to big-name players from other clubs and equally significantly, existing loyal Saints members.

And Carlton, though now conditioned to bottom-of-ladder finishes, is justifiably asking itself: are we definitely on the right path?

As eight AFL teams today fine-tune their preparations for the finals series, seven of the 10 clubs which missed qualifying for September are enduring varying degrees of crisis as they set out to make 2019 better than 2018.

The Dockers have seen list manager Brad Lloyd and football department boss Chris Bond exit. The second-best player on the list, Lachie Neale, wants to leave despite being contracted for 2019.

The unrest within the Dockers also extended to a section of the playing group late in the season when coach Ross Lyon, who rightly prides himself on positive relations with his players, criticised a senior player after a match in a manner which left the player himself distressed, and some around him extremely angered.

The matter has been resolved, but in a year in which a heavy cloud has hovered over Lyon and his club, it was an unsatisfactory close to the home and away season.

Port Adelaide chairman David Koch takes a refreshing view of football. Failure to make finals in his eyes is a failed season. Which means his team, which no longer lacks for resources, has failed three times in the past four years.

The Power’s post-2017 recruits ultimately did not work in 2018, and now a key midfielder in Jared Polec is leaving. Koch is demanding action. Certain key players, including Chad Wingard, will be offered to other clubs. Tense times ahead for Port Adelaide.

'Kochie' demands success at the Power. Picture: AFL Photos

Luke Dahlhaus’ decision to leave the Western Bulldogs is not as headline-generating as the Jake Stringer departure last year. But in some ways, it is even more significant.

Dahlhaus was a one-time Bulldogs poster boy, a rookie who was once used by the club in official club initiatives which targeted junior supporters.

But he and many other teammates let their social lives impact adversely on their professional ones after the 2016 premiership, and now he wants Geelong to be his new football home.

Shane Biggs retired, aged 27. Jack Redpath is expected to also do that, also at 27. Clay Smith did so in July, at 25. Mitch Wallis has been questionably treated at stages of this season but is such a club man that he wants to stay. Premiership ruckman Jordan Roughead hasn’t been on the same page as his coach for most of 2018 and is desperate for a fresh start at a new club.

Mitch McGovern will next month follow other big names in Paddy Dangerfield, Phil Davis, Bernie Vince, Jack Gunston, Charlie Cameron, Jake Lever and Kurt Tippett out of the Crows.

It is now a damning list of star exits. But there was a recent positive for the beleaguered Crows, grand finalist in 2017 and 12th-placed in 2018. The genuine public apologies made by chairman Rob Chapman and coach Don Pyke for the disgraceful pre-season camp will finally allow that matter to be resolved.

McGovern is the latest Crow to want out. Picture: AFL Photos

With a recent change of president, St Kilda is still reviewing the woes of 2018, and more significant changes cannot be ruled out. It has become obvious to the new president Andrew Bassat that the initial review into all aspects of the club’s operations, for several reasons, did not delve sufficiently deep enough.

The many problems at Gold Coast now genuinely worry the AFL Commission, and the lack of quality on the playing list is hindering the big picture plans.

There is an intriguing situation developing with remaining captain Steven May. Contracted for 2019, May is considering all options. Suns officials are too and are prepared to trade him this year if he can’t, in the next month, commit to a deal beyond 2019.

Carlton wants McGovern, and will offer the Crows a package that will probably get that deal done. It should then go all-in, and go for May as well.

Without bold thinking and action, both in axings and acquisitions, on and off field, in the next six weeks, Carlton, St Kilda, Gold Coast, the Dogs, the Power, Adelaide and Fremantle will be consigning themselves for similar results in 2019.

They’ve got one thing going for them over the finalists - a head start.