The teams that have done well over the years have had at least one hard man, one to put the fear of God into opposition players eg:
Essendon, Johnsons
Brisbane, Brown, Scott brothers
Sydney, Hall
Geelong, Mooney
Port, Picket
St Kilda, Hamill
North Melb, Archer, Carey
Adelaide, Roo
The last hard man we had probably was Scotty Turner, (who can forget the bump on O'Donnell which invetiably turned the game for us). At the moment we do not seem to have a player or even look like having a player in the near future that can do that for us.