Can an AFL team be a dominant force in the modern-era while relying solely on its 'bookends' to win games?
It's a fascinating question in this era where the midfielders rule and where increasingly even the game's giants - the key forwards and key defenders - are expected to be able to run like gazelles.
There is no doubt the premier teams of recent years have been built on the back of their powerful midfields.
First there was Brisbane's 'fab four' of Michael Voss, Simon Black, Nigel Lappin and Jason Akermanis as the Lions became the first team in 46 years to win three successive premierships from 2001-03.
And now the benchmark team is West Coast with last year's premiership built on the back of the dominance of Ben Cousins, Daniel Kerr, Chris Judd, Chad Fletcher and Andrew Embley - a dominance that has continued this year despite the absence of Cousins and Fletcher and for much of the season Embley thanks to the huge improvement of Matt Priddis.
The top three sides at the halfway mark of the 2007 season Geelong, West Coast and Hawthorn all have powerful midfields but what about the other member of the top four - Essendon.
Well the Bombers, so far at least, are proving the theory wrong that without a dominant midfield you can no longer be a successful AFL side.
Statistics provided to Sportal by the AFL's official stats supplier Champion Data reveal just how strong the Bombers' attack and defence has been through the first 11 rounds and it's just as well considering how weak its midfield has been over the same period.
Incredibly despite winning seven of the first 11 matches, the Bombers have won the inside 50's just once all season - against winless Richmond back in round nine.
The amount of times a team gets the ball inside its forward 50 compared to the opposition is widely considered to be the best way to measure a team's midfield dominance.
And on this score the Bombers are struggling badly.
While league leaders Geelong and West Coast are way out in front on this score with an average of nine and seven more inside 50's per game than their opponents this season, Essendon is averaging six less with only 15th placed Melbourne and the last-placed Tigers worse off.
The Bombers are conceding an average of 58 inside 50's per game this season - the highest of any side in the past four years - and last week conceded a massive 64 against the reigning premiers yet still beat the Eagles by a point.
And that is because their defence was able to hold up to the pressure, highlighting the decision to recruit the experienced Mal Michael to play alongside Dustin Fletcher this season.
In fact Champion Data's investigation into the Bombers has revealed the defence has been the major factor behind their recent winning run of four in a row after the attack was behind their good early season form.
In the past month the Bombers have rebounded out of their defence 79 per cent of the time without conceding a goal - ranked number one in the AFL.
And in the first month of the season their attack - which in Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas contains arguably the best key forward pairing in the AFL - had a scoring accuracy of 64 per