With the names of our offensive and defensive trios already on the whiteboard, it is now time to list the men that link the two together – the midfielders.
Due to their aerobic and ball winning capacities, modern midfielders receive plaudits and pay packets far beyond their part-time predecessors.
These players at the coalface are regularly seen as their club's blue-chip talent, with their output integral to securing victory.
Like the previous pair of catalogues, the same four rules for selection apply for our third and final list:
1. Three players must be selected from each club.
2. Even if they have played for multiple clubs, no player can be selected on the list of two teams.
3. All players must have played at least a portion of their careers from 1990 onwards.
4. Most importantly, no player can have played an in-season match with any of their colleagues during their time at their selected club.
To up the ante, we have also added a fifth point of criteria: a ruckman must also be selected for each team.
For example, should Brodie Grundy be selected for Collingwood, then all of his midfield mates between 2013 and the present day become ineligible.
With all this in mind, here is our best stab.
Let us know how we have gone and which clubs you feel have fared best.
Western Bulldogs
Justin Charles – 1989-1993 (36 games)
Justin Charles will never own the title of the ‘greatest Bulldogs ruckman of all time', however, he is one all the same, and in an effort to squeeze the final two names in, gets a guernsey from us begrudgingly.
The adjective electric befits none of Charles' five seasons at the Kennel, but should he just bring the ball to ground in a contest with his hypothetical teammates, then I am certain they would do the rest.
Scott West – 1993-2008 (324 games)
As part of a group comprised of names like Pendlebury, Selwood, Bartlett and Leigh Matthews, Scott West can count himself seriously unlucky to never win a Brownlow.
In West's 16 seasons at the Western oval, he won just about everything, including a haul of seven best and fairests, five All-Australians and a place in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
Premiership success also alluded him, but there is no doubt that he is still seen as one of Footscray's favourite sons.
Marcus Bontempelli – 2014-Present (145 games)
After one of the most precocious starts in the game's long history, it is little wonder as to why Marcus Bontempelli is one of the AFL's poster boys.
With three All-Australians, three Sutton medals, an AFLCA Champion player of the Year award and a flag in just his third season, the future may be bright for Bontempelli, but the past gleams equally as bright.
