Mick McGaune rats our midfield as the 4th best in the AFL

Teams ranked ahead of us are: Geelong, Port and Richmond

4. Western Bulldogs

The top liners: Marcus Bontempelli (18, 114), Adam Treloar (10, 104), Josh Dunkley (12, 104), Bailey Smith (18, 92), Jack Macrae (18, 119), Lachie Hunter (10, 112), Ed Richards (17, 58), Tom Liberatore (16, 105), Patrick Lipinski (13, 78)

The top-ups: Roarke Smith (6, 60), Lin Jong (3, 72)

McGuane says: Marcus Bontempelli, Jack Macrae, Tom Liberatore, and winger Lachie Hunter are four very good players and can match it with any opposition on any given day. Josh Dunkley is a strong inside midfielder also. They all have the capabilities of winning a lot of possession around stoppages, and the recruitment of Adam Treloar will only add to that. He will also compliment another strong feature of their game — their shape off that contest. It gives them the opportunity to chain possession out of stopages through handballs, something Treloar loves to do. They have a great understanding of where each other are, they play their roles and play to their structure and that is a reason why they can fire off those quick one, two or three-metre handballs. Their clearance differential and their centre bounce clearance differential must improve — ruckman Tim English must spend another summer in the gym. Stef Martin has been recruited to help change that trend and offer much-needed support for English. Bailey Smith is also a player that is a clean ball-handler, a linebreaker and he gives his forwards some good looks when kicking to them.