Every AFL club's midfield ranked: Part II

See who makes up the league’s middle echelon of engine room ensembles.

STAFF WRITER | March 10, 2022 - 1:01pm

The midfield is arguably the most important position group in footy as they're tasked with being present at most contests and all stoppages while serving as the link between their defence and offence.

Without a strong ensemble of on-ballers, teams are destined to fall apart as middling play in this area results in catastrophic consequences to the outcome of a contest on a given day.

Not all midfields are alike as some prioritise a physical ball-winning style, while others emphasise a run-and-gun outside game and then there are sides that prefer a healthy balance of the two.

Each club has its own formula for constructing the ideal midfield but not all team's engine room can perform at the highest level.

With this in mind, let's have a look at the league's best midfield groups heading into 2022, starting from 12-7.

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3. (10) Fremantle

The Fremantle Dockers outrank Richmond for two reasons.

Sean Darcy is a beast in the ruck and gives the Dockers every chance to dominate the clearance game, evidenced by Freo ranking seventh in total clearances per game and sixth in hit-outs per game. The man is a weapon.

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2. Their top-tier stars in the dual Brownlow Medalist Nathan Fyfe, classy Andrew Brayshaw and hard-nosed Caleb Serong are better and younger in the centre, again not including 'Dusty' given his predominately forward-centric role. Furthermore, the acquisitions of draftees Neil Erasmus and Matthew Johnson add promising young talent to an already stellar nucleus.

When taking into account that Freo lost promising on-baller Adam Cerra to Carlton in the off-season, they did get weaker on paper but also have more opportunities for emerging players to grow into starring roles.

Fremantle also fields solid role players in their midfield group's lower ranks as the reliable James Aish, untested Will Brodie and diverse Darcy Tucker round out the Dockers centre with the ageless David Mundy likely popping through in his farewell season.