Hindsight is a beautiful thing, and in the world of football we as fans tend to get caught up in the events of days gone past.
Every footy fanatic has that one player that they long to see take the field, however long gone their days of handling a Sherrin may be.
Whether it be Daicos or Doull, Ricciuto or Richardson, fans can usually point to a single figure that captured their imagination during their formative years of watching AFL football.
Similar to our 'If your club could steal one player...' series, this trio of pieces will go through all 18 teams in the league, pointing at the weak spots in their best 22 and picking one of four past players to slot into their lineup and remedy their club's ailments.
We start off today with the first six teams of the competition based on alphabetical order.
Essendonย
Option 1: Dick Reynolds
It's hard to pick somebody at Essendon that has been more successful on an individual level than the great Dick Reynolds.
Reynolds is one of only four players ever to have won three Brownlow Medals, with all of them coming within five seasons. Throw in a whopping seven club best-and-fairests and four premiership wins, and just like that there is no one at Essendon who comes close to what "King Richard" achieved as a player.
Achieving all of this in 320 games, Reynolds was captain-coach of the club from 1939 until 1951, when he hung up the boots and coached the side until 1960. Despite being one of the greatest rovers to ever play the game he was named on the half-forward flank in the AFL Team of the Century in 1996, with his adeptness to go forward and boot goals exemplified in his final tally of 442 career goals.
Option 2: Matthew Lloyd
One of modern footy's most enduring figures, Matthew Lloyd is remembered as one of the great full-forwards of the 21st century.
A footy career that spanned 15 seasons and contained a huge 926 goals, "Lordo" wielded one of the most trusty set shots of the modern era with the majority of his shots - no matter if they were inside or outside the 50-metre arc - usually hitting true.
The man from St Bernards College managed to crack the tonne in back-to-back seasons, being 2000 (109 goals) and 2001 (105 goals). A three-time Coleman Medal winner and a five-time All Australian, Lloyd is in rarified air when it comes to Essendon full-forwards and is the club's all-time leading goalkicker.
Should Lloyd have not sustained the injuries he had over his career - including rupturing a tendon in his finger and tearing his hamstring off the bone - there is little doubt that he could have surpassed the elusive mark of 1000 career goals.
Option 3: John Colemanย
A player who has only played 98 games throughout their career would seldom be remembered as one of the greatest to ever do it, but for John Coleman it only took him two shy of a century of matches to earn himself legend status.
The man from the Mornington Peninsula burst onto the scene in 1949 for the Bombers, booting 12 goals on debut and going on to boot 100 goals in 21 games that season to guide his side to one of two flags throughout his short career.
Coleman managed to boot 100+ goals in three of his six playing years, averaging a hard-to-believe 5.48 goals per game as he finished his career with 537 goals. Sadly, a dislocated knee in 1954 prematurely ended his time as a footballer with the forward having already booted 43 goals in the six games prior to his injury.
Even though his time on-field was short-lived, many wonder about what might have been should John Coleman have played for just a few more years, with the trajectory he was on meaning that the stars truly were the limit for him.
The award given to the leading goalkicker across the league at season's end was named in his honour in 1981, with no player in the game's history having such an impact in such a short time since.
Option 4: Dustin Fletcher
'Inspector Gadget' himself slides in on this list for the incredible career he forged at Windy Hill over the record 22 years he had at AFL level.
Fletcher managed to win two flags in his time as a Bomber - one in 1993 and the other in 2000 - also picking up his first and only Crichton Medal in the latter of the two premiership years. His aforementioned nickname came from his ability to wrap himself around opposition forwards and get a hand to the ball from seemingly impossible positions.
Apart from his gangly figure, Fletcher had one of the longest kicks in the game with his barrels from kick-outs regularly travelling over 70 metres. Arguably his most famous barrel came in 2007 when he unloaded from 75 metres out to goal for the Bombers against the Saints.
Despite the Bombers supplement saga marring the twilight years of his career to an extent, Fletcher is sorely missed amongst Essendon fans for his consistently rock-solid displays over the course of his 400 game career.
Verdict
Examining the current Essendon lineup, there are some significant holes in some integral places. Their defence could use some reinforcement however, similarly to many other teams on this list, key forwards seem to be the order of the day.
Despite Matthew Lloyd being tried and tested against modern-day defenders, John Coleman's ridiculous stats means that it is so hard to look past him.
537 goals in 98 games is next level, and in Essendon's current lineup Coleman would provide arguably the best possible target for midfielders to hit up - with his small frame deceiving defenders into thinking they had him covered.
