It’s round one, 2019 and a new-look Fremantle team runs out onto Optus Stadium.

There’s a palpable sense of excitement amongst the success-starved Dockers fan base as captain Nat Fyfe strides out ahead of boom recruits Jesse Hogan and Rory Lobb.

Reece Conca and Travis Colyer follow them and head towards their starting positions.

But where exactly do the Dockers’ four trade period acquisitions sit in the best 22?

Assuming their best players are all fit, Ross Lyon and his match committee face a number of selection dilemmas going into the third season of a planned four-year rebuild.

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The balancing act continues between trying to develop a team that will eventually be capable of challenging for a premiership and the desperate need to put wins on the board as a tangible measure of improvement.

Chief among those queries is whether veteran Aaron Sandilands or emerging ruckman Sean Darcy starts at the first centre bounce.

Sandilands, who will be 36 in December, has been the Dockers’ No.1 big man (when fit) for well over a decade.

Camera Icon Is Sandilands still in the best 22? Credit: Getty Images

But 20-year-old Geelong product Darcy is entering his third season and is eager to add to his 15 AFL games.

It is unlikely both will play in the same full-strength side.

Hogan and Lobb will immediately fill key forward posts on the whiteboard and force Cam McCarthy and Shane Kersten to earn their spots, while also allowing versatile young tall Brennan Cox to be used in the back line, where he played a significant amount of his junior football.

Alongside Joel Hamling and Alex Pearce, Cox would help cover taller opposition attacks that got hold of Fremantle at times last season.

Luke Ryan and Nathan Wilson are also among the first selected in the back half.

Lyon will have to weigh up where Matt Taberner fits into that forward mix after some promising signs last year from a player who has teased Dockers fans for years.

Conca and Colyer could start on half-back and half-forward respectively and can both add depth to a midfield rotation that has lost its best ball winner from the past three seasons in Brisbane bound Lachie Neale.

Neale’s departure paved the way for the Hogan and Lobb arrivals at the trade table.

But there is now pressure on Connor Blakely to step up in his place as a contested ball specialist as Andrew Brayshaw, Adam Cerra and Bailey Banfield look to continue their development on the back of impressive debut seasons.

Blakely missed nine games with a knee injury last year while the return of Fyfe (who missed seven games), Stephen Hill (nine) and Bradley Hill (12) will be crucial to the Dockers’ chances of challenging for a spot in the top eight.

Stephen Hill could fill some of the Neale void in a hybrid inside/outside role with Bradley Hill and Ed Langdon available to provide outside dash on the wings.

Club legend Paul Hasleby last week called for 2016 first-round draft pick Logue to be unleashed on a wing on his return from a serious ankle injury.

The midfield mix will be the hardest to settle on.

Camera Icon Blakely is tipped to take Lachie Neale’s spot in the midfield. Credit: Daniel Wilkins

David Mundy spent plenty of time forward last year but at 33 can still roll through the centre as a big-bodied midfielder with Fyfe and Blakely.

Re-signed veteran Hayden Ballantyne faces a fight to retain his spot in the side, as does fellow small forward Brandon Matera.

And then there’s Harley Bennell.

The troubled star will be placed on a new fitness regime in a bid to move past his soft tissue injuries but cannot yet be relied upon to play a regular role.

If he does, it will be a more than welcome injection of class from a player who showed serious match-winning ability during his time at Gold Coast.

Taylin Duman and Darcy Tucker linger on the fringes with McCarthy and Kersten, while Stefan Giro, Ryan Nyhuis, Ethan Hughes and Mitch Crowden appear a bit off the best 22.

Lobb’s presence as a forward and best second ruck option also puts doubt over the ability of Michael Apeness and Scott Jones to break into the side.

Fremantle’s potential best 22 in 2019

B: Joel Hamling, Alex Pearce, Luke Ryan

HB: Reece Conca, Brennan Cox, Nathan Wilson

C: Bradley Hill, David Mundy, Ed Langdon

HF: Adam Cerra, Rory Lobb, Connor Blakely

F: Andrew Brayshaw, Jesse Hogan, Michael Walters

R: Aaron Sandilands, Nat Fyfe, Stephen Hill

Int: Matt Taberner, Travis Colyer, Harley Bennell, Bailey Banfield

Emg: Taylin Duman, Sean Darcy, Hayden Ballantyne

Key omissions: Griffin Logue, Cam McCarthy, Darcy Tucker, Brandon Matera, Shane Kersten.