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 โ 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: aย 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.
Hawthorn
Paul Salmon โ 1996-2000 (100 games)
Despite his time as a Hawk coming wedged between two stints with Essendon, Paul Salmon's 100 games in brown and gold were of an elite standard.
After beginning his career primarily as a tall forward at Windy Hill, the โBig Fish' shifted into the ruck after moving to Glenferrie before the 1996 season.
In his five years with the Hawks, Salmon averaged north of 19 hitouts per game and collected another All-Australian, two best and fairests, a Michael Tuck medal and a place in their Team of the Century.
Sam Mitchell โ 2002-2016 (307 games)
As the equal, if not the superior, of the many names on Hawthorn's long list of superstars, adding Sam Mitchell to our list required little thought.
With a haul of five Peter Crimmins medals, four flags, three All-Australians and the 2012 Brownlow medal (Sorry, Bombers fans), it really is not hard to see why.
Tom Mitchell โ 2017-Present (63 games)
We follow one Brownlow winning Mitchell with another.
After crossing from a flock of birds with different feathers at the completion of the 2016 season, Tom Mitchell set the competition on fire in his second season as a Hawk.
Following a 2018 season that saw the son of a gun average a mammoth 35.33 disposals across his 24 games - including a record 54 in Round 1 - Mitchell entered Brownlow night with miniscule odds attached to his name.
Mitchell added to his runaway โCharlie' win with All-Australian honours, the Peter Crimmins medal and the Leigh Matthews trophy.
Despite missing the entirety of the 2019 season with a broken leg, Mitchell was back on the park for the Hawks last season and remains a critical part in their planned resurgence up the ladder.
