The midfield is the engine room of a football club, where star players will their team to victory and where most accolades are won.
Midfielders Nick Daicos, Patrick Cripps, Marcus Bontempelli, and Lachie Neale are the poster men for the competition, with their video game stats each week taking the AFL world by storm.
Ordering each club 18-1 is a difficult task given each club's midfield is littered with talent, with numerous players vying for an All-Australian selection each year despite only three traditional midfield spots up for grabs for the entire competition.
Yet, here at Zero Hanger, we've attempted the challenge of ranking the best midfields in the league, with this first instalment revealing the bottom six clubs, 18th through 13th.
4. (15th) Geelong
Despite their on-field success, Geelong own a relatively weak midfield. Patrick Dangerfield, Cam Guthrie and Mitch Duncan enter their twilight years, while Tanner Bruhn and Tom Atkins are reliable, underrated role players but haven't flourished into AFL stars beyond the eyes of a Cats fan.
Max Holmes rose to the occasion in 2024 however in a standout season, averaging 24.2 disposals and 4.1 inside 50s - both career highs.
The addition of Bailey Smith is exciting too and potentially creates a new dynamic that sees Geelong's midfield excel next year.
Whether Oliver Dempsey sees more midfield minutes after his Rising Star year will be another interesting watch, as will Tom Stewart's ability to move out of defence, as Chris Scott figures out how to best construct the centre bounce.
But even with the Cats' lack of depth, the core components have thrived in their role.
Geelong ranked fifth for clearances and inside 50s per game in 2024 on their way to yet another deep finals run.
If the Cats can stay healthy there's no reason why they can't become a midfield force. As aforementioned, ranking each club's midfield is a difficult task as they all have upside potential that could become reality.
The main negating factor for the Cats remains to be their depth - an injured star and they will nearly certainly have to blood untried youth or move the magnets around to squeeze a defender like Tom Stewart back into the middle.
