The midfield is home to the AFL's most recognised names. This line receives the most individual recognition, sweeping the league's suite of awards most years. Those in the engine room shoulder the responsibility of galvanising their side through winning possession and determining field position.
Midfield groups are usually emblematic of a given team - good teams have good midfields, and bad teams do not.
Here's Zero Hanger's ranking of the league's 18 midfield corps for 2025.
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15. Melbourne
In Simon Goodwin's final year in charge of this storied club, the Demons fell away from their identity as a contest and defence team, finishing the year inside the bottom five for total clearances, and equal-second-worst for first possession to clearance rate. The evergreen Max Gawn produced the league's second-best hitout-to-advantage differential, illuminating just how poor his midfield were in converting this to clearance.
This once vaunted engine room fell from first for scores from centre bounce in their premiership year of 2021 to seventh in 2025, and fell from third to 10th for scores from stoppage across that period, too.
Off-field circuses no doubt contributed to this fall off, and some of the prime movers in the dynamic midfield that secured the drought-breaking flag finally had their departure wishes granted in the recent trade period. Couple that with a heavy draft focus in the last two years, and the midfield complexion figures to look different moving forward, under the tutelage of Steven King.
