All things considered Fremantle have been one of the best-performed teams over the past five years.

Even if you go back as far as 2008, Fremantle have been a reliable finals-quality team, but have not been able to crack it for a flag.

Thinking about where the club has come from and its overall record, the last seven or eight years have been excellent for the club.

Although making the step up to being a contender is significant for the history of the club, success tends to be measured in premierships, and Freo still don’t have one.

It’s unusual, but if you lead a club to a decade of third-place finishes, you would have to imagine the coach, players, list mangers were doing a pretty good job – but the fans would be disappointed. This is the unfortunate position Fremantle is in right now – consistently good without being number 1.

However this is the year that will change. Moreover, this won’t be the team’s last chance at going all the way.

Best 22
Backs Garrick Ibbotson Alex Silvagni Lee Spurr
Half backs Tendai Mzungu Michael Johnson Clancee Pearce
Centre Stephen Hill Michael Barlow Lachie Neale
Half forwards Harley Bennell Matthew Pavlich Michael Walters
Forwards Hayden Ballantyne Zac Clarke Chris Mayne
Followers Aaron Sandilands Nat Fyfe David Mundy
Interchange Nick Suban Lachie Weller Danyle Pearce
Matt DeBoer

Freo have near enough to the best list in the league. Their best five players overall are Nat Fyfe (clearly), David Mundy, Stephen Hill, Lachie Neale and Harley Bennell.

Fyfe is the best player in the comp and the next three (Mundy, Hill, Neale) are in the best 20 midfielders overall.

People want to make subjective assessments about Bennell’s effect on team chemistry and off-field problems, but this can be overrated. If we look solely at Bennell’s output as a player in the early part of his career he has been excellent. Whatever off-field problems he may have had, it hasn’t affected his performances. I’m privy to whether or not he’s well-adjusted and healthy in his private life, but on-field, if he performs in line with the trajectory he has demonstrated so far, he will be a major contributor.

It is worth noting also that these five players are mostly in a good age bracket. Mundy is the exception, but Fyfe, Hill, Neale and Bennell still have most of their careers in front of them, and project as outstanding players for a long time to come. There are ageing players on this list who will need to be replaced sooner rather than later, but their replacements are more readily available than people might think.

The likes of Brady Grey, Tanner Smith, Ethan Hughes, Alex Pearce and Ed Langdon all produced respectable football from limited opportunities last year. Michael Apeness played two games in 2014 that made me think the club had a tentative solution to their key forward problem, however having missed all of 2015 it is difficult to say for certain where his career is at. The limited senior football sample size for these players makes it hard to be definitive about the trajectory of their careers, but is nevertheless reassuring.

Much is made of the club’s defensive mindset, and the influence of Ross Lyon with respect to that particular football philosophy. This always struck me as curious given how many games the club has been able to win in his time. I’m not sure I subscribe to the notion that the game plan works in season but not in finals.

Moreover, if I’m Lyon, I’m totally unconcerned about how ugly our games are to watch. Indeed, I would double down and go out-of-control defensive, but that probably says more about my vindictive mentality than anything else.

Nevertheless, while finding a replacement for Matthew Pavlich should be a priority (I’m not sold on Taberner and Apeness hasn’t been fit), the notion that they need to be more attacking is overrated. Bennell could be an answer to this concern in any case.

Best mid: Nate Fyfe
I would love to have had an off-the-wall suggestion to create a bit of controversy, but facts is facts: the reigning Brownlow winner is the best player in the competition, and projects as being in the top three players going around for the next five years.

It is not simply that he can get the ball, he manages to do it in any fashion he pleases. On a wet day in a defensive game he can be the dour inside plugger, in a more open game on a dry day he shows off blistering pace and links up on the outside. Astute followers of the game will also notice that his contested marking stats are remarkable for a player at his position.

To put Fyfe’s 1.65 contested marks a game in perspective, the three players ahead of him in 2015 were Kurt Tippett, Jarrad Waite and Brian Lake. The three players behind him on that list were Easton Wood, Drew Petrie and Joe Daniher. This highlights not only that Fyfe is a good contested mark but that the allround skillset he possesses is rare.

He has been earmarked to play forward more often, owing in part to his marking, but also to his creativity and skill around goal. He’s so good around the ball that taking him away from that spot might do more harm than good, however he would make a solid fist of playing full back or in the ruck if he was asked to.

Best defender: Michael Johnson
Of late when reading about Michael Johnson, it’s usually been in relation to his age and how Fremantle need to find someone to replace him. Perhaps I’m just reading the wrong things, but the focus should be on how good he is right now as opposed to when he should be replaced.

Johnson is outside the top five players at the club, but only just.

Five years ago, he was the player this team tried to orchestrate as a spare or running defender, and as such rarely found himself with a key defensive assignment. In that time he has transitioned into a proper key defender, usually getting the more mobile of the opposition key forwards, but still not sacrificing his ability to win the ball on his own merits and link up with his teammates.

Although I would no longer rank him in the 20 best defenders in the league, Johnson’s ability to team one-on-one defence with an attacking mindset is vital for this team. As an aerial defender he can be relied on to kill contests as a spoiler and intercept marker in his own right. Add to this an average of 15-17 touches a game and competent delivery by foot, and you have a well-rounded key defensive piece who is versatile enough to complement a variety of teammates.

He is not a tackler to be sure, but this is not necessarily indicative of a lack of willingness to perform this duty as it is reflective of the way he performs a role that accentuates his strengths.

Best forward: Chris Mayne
Mayne might not get the recognition as the highest profile member of this forward line, but the combination of his presence as an endurance athlete, tackling weapon and marking target make him the most versatile and valuable player in the forward half.

Players like Walters and Ballantyne also offer forward pressure, and are probably more creative around goal, but it is the regularity with which Mayne contributes and performs the unfashionable tasks that makes him simultaneously one of the best and most underrated players in the league.

At 188 centimetres, you might like your third tall to be a little bigger, as is reflected in his contested marking which has never truly been a feature of his game, opting rather to burn opponents on the lead with his pace. Having said that, he can hold his own one-on-one, but is at ground level where he can really punish the opposition.

Last year he laid a career-high 5.6 tackles a game and averages almost four a game across his whole career. This is a feature of his game virtually unparalleled by any other third tall in the competition.

The decline of Pavlich and the absence of another true key forward make his role as a player who can mark, make space on the lead and pressure on the ground even more crucial in 2016.

Biggest strength: Best midfield in the league
Because this team plays with a defence-first mindset, it is the miserly defence and rigid game plan that usually gets attention when analysing them. This does a disservice to the midfield, which not only contains the best player in the league but also a group of other quality players.

Mundy would be the number one midfielder on a number of teams, his inside work is offset by the speed and evasiveness of both Hill and Neale, the latter of whom has quietly progressed to become one of the most underrated mids in the league.

Add to the mix one of the most promising young attacking midfielders in Bennell, and that core of five is better than any other going around. They are also young and on the improve.

Outside of this core are players like Michael Barlow, Tom Sheridan and Mat DeBoer, each of whom offer excellence in a specific skill set (Barlow can get it but can seem slow, Sheridan is young a quick, DeBoer turns it over but tackles like a man possessed) and you have depth and complementary skill sets like no other in the league.

I’m also optimistic about a number of their young players – Brady Grey and Lachie Weller to name a couple, but they both appear to still be developing.

This midfield will demonstrate its value even more so this year with the reduction of the interchange cap. Lyon’s game plan places a fairly heavy toll on his mids, requiring them to work ‘up and back’ arguably more than most other coaches. While this style, combined with reduced interchanges, could place too much strain on those players, you will see the value of having a midfield with such a huge endurance base.

Players like Barlow, who often seem one paced, are still tireless workers and will grind opponents into the ground over the course of the game. This is an asset possessed by virtually every player in this midfield, and other teams won’t be able to keep up with this midfield group towards the end of matches.

Biggest weakness: Key forwards
The Dockers’ need for a key forward is common knowledge, so I won’t exhaust readers by treading over old ground, except to say that the two key posts held by Pavlich and Zac Clarke are servicable enough that as long as they are fit the team is not going to be too exposed.

These two players however, with Sandilands resting forward at times, have a lot of responsibility for carrying the aerial attack for the team.

Although Taberner is not a best-22 player, being 198 centimetres and having a big engine will force him into contention. If he plays above where he’s at, he could maintain a position in this side.

Outside of Taberner, only Michael Apeness coming off injury is listed as a key forward. Otherwise the team will have to play guys like Hannath, Griffin, Silvagni or Pearce in a role that they are not fundamentally on the list to play. Nevertheless, this gap is masked by the potency of their cadre of small forwards and quality midfield.

Overall, all going to plan Fremantle will be hard to beat every week, with only one team in the comp with a list projected to be stronger in 2016. Putting together this 22 was probably as difficult as any.

This list is deep and a number of good players are simply not going to be able to fit in a successful side. This bodes well for masking injuries if and when they come, with a combination of young and experienced players more than capable of stepping up.

That being the case, I predict the team to finish second, or in the top four at least, and from there they just need a little luck.

Who knows, maybe this could be the year the Purple Haze washes over the premiership.

Likely wins: 17-20