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.
Carlton
Greg Williams โ 1992-1997 (109 games)
In a list comprised of men that called the engine room home, only one goes by the moniker of โDiesel'.
Although he started his career as a Cat and won his first โCharlie' as a Swan, it was with the Blues that Greg Williams truly reached his zenith.
Across his six seasons at Princes Park, the, at times, feisty midfielder won a pair of All-Australian selections, a flag, a league MVP, a Norm Smith, and another Brownlow medal in 1994.
Despite playing just 109 games for the club, Williams added to this haul with a place in the Blues and league's Team of the Centuries and a place in both the club's and the game's Hall of Fame.
Barnaby French โ 2003-2006 (71 games)
Although he will be seen as the mortadella between two slices of woodfired sourdough, Barnaby French was Carlton's number one ruck for the better part of four years.
Barnaby's best season as a Blue can in 2005, when he averaged 18.7 hitouts across 15 appearances. Despite these fair figures, Carlton managed just four wins that year.
The following season saw a lull for both French and his side, with his average dipping to 17.3 and the Blues' wins total sliced in half.
Chris Judd โ 2008-2015 (145 games)
Regardless of his student's rise to prominence, we have selected Patrick Cripps' supremely credentialed sensei.
After crossing from the Eagles at the completion of the 2007 season, Chris Judd signed a multi-million-dollar contract with Carlton and became the latest in their line of purchased messiahs.
Despite no flags in his tenure as a Blue, Judd's list of achievements more than justified his price tag, in the eyes of most.
Across his eight seasons with Carlton, the follicly challenged champion won four All-Australians selections, three John Nicholls medals, another Leigh Matthews trophy and like Williams before him, a second Brownlow medal.
