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.
Melbourne
Jim Stynes – 1987-1998 (264 games)
For the younger readers that either never saw Jim Stynes play, let me spin you a brief yarn.
After coming out from Dublin prior to the 1987 season, Stynes was seen as merely a prospective player, but after just five years at the elite level, ‘Big Jim' was adjudged the league's best and fairest player in 1991.
In addition to his Brownlow medal, Stynes, along with Allan La Fontaine, holds the record for the most best and fairests in Melbourne's long history with four.
Stynes was also a two time All-Australian, is part of both Melbourne and the league's Hall of Fame and set a league record by playing 244 consecutive games.
Despite all of these awards, arguably his greatest honours came beyond the boundary line, with his work for the Reach foundation that saw him named Victorian of the year and receive an OAM before his untimely death in 2012.
Cameron Bruce – 2000-2010 (224 games)
Although his time with the Demons started in a year that saw the club make the Grand Final, the majority of Cameron Bruce's career was spent outside of the eight.
A solid contributor in the engine room and impossible to miss with his bleached tips, Bruce spent 11 years with Melbourne, and after being promoted to the role of captain, won the club's best and fairest in their woeful 2008 season.
Christian Petracca – 2015-Present (102 games)
Although he was taken with the second overall pick of the 2014 Draft, it admittedly took Christian Petracca a few years to hit his straps.
However, after a white hot 2020 season that saw him equal third to Lachie Neale on Brownlow night, there is no doubt that Petracca is peaking.
In a year that saw him average 23.52 disposals across 17 games comprised of shortened quarters, the Eastern Ranges product won his first All-Australian blazer, as well as his debut best and fairest.
If the Demons are to return to September action after a pair of years outside of the eight, you can be sure that it will be on the back of bulls like Petracca.
