Backlines can often do the heavy lifting in footy, especially if they're part of a side looking to turn their list around at the foot of the ladder.
With A-grade defenders a commodity in the AFL, and half-backs often going unnoticed whilst offering their best efforts, those that ply their trade down back hold an accountable role that can go unrewarded.
As made evident in last year's premiership run, a well-gelled rearguard can be the cornerstone in conjuring the right list worthy of planting their flag at the summit come the end of the season.
With the season nearing and each side looking to improve on the results of yesteryear, we profile each side's list of defenders and rank them against their league counterparts.
In part two, we look at the sides ranked 12th down to 7th.
AFL BACKLINES RANKED 18-13
2. (11) Fremantle
The Dockers have the list to be more than competitive against the top forward lines in the league, however their biggest downfall is the injury tolls their backmen continue to face each season.
Joel Hamling (one game), Hayden Young (eight), Alex Pearce (10), Brennan Cox (12) and Griffin Logue (16) couldn't get close to piecing together full seasons in 2021, having to balance setback after setback.
Should they finally be able to combine as a collective, Fremantle could quickly emerge as a substantial catalyst in their plans to rise back into premiership contention.
Despite the injury impacts, the Dockers were still able to rank among the top handful of sides for intercepts and rebound the ball out of their defensive 50.
