Monday morning – you know the drill by now, and if you don’t, here’s the quick version.
Five winners, and five losers from the weekend of footy.
Here are The Mongrel’s Winners and Losers from Round 15.
THE WINNERS
TOM DE KONING
Imagine this scenario as a young player – you are now the number one ruck at your club, and international pop stars are improvising songs about you. Your team is flying and you’re a big part of the reason. Coming up against your brother’s team, you look across the centre square and see the little fella lining up to go one-on-one with you.
You smile. You know what’s going to happen.
Then you proceed to give him a lesson like you did in the backyard, growing up.
This is the life of Tom De Koning, who gave his brother a spanking. More on this duel in the Losers section.
LACHIE NEALE
So, this is what occurs when you decide not to tag Lachie Neale.
Ken Hinkley thought it might be fun to see what Zak Butters could do if he played him head-to-head against the dual Brownlow Medallist, and whilst Butters was not disgraced, picking up 35 touches of his own, Neale punished the Power, collecting 37 disposals, ten clearances, and 11 score involvements.
The number of times the Lions looked to Neale when the pressure was mounting, only for their champion to hold the ball, draw heat, and then dish off to a player in better position, emphasised just how good this bloke is.
With Neale playing like this, the Lions are a legitimate threat.
ERROL GULDEN
I once had a chat with a Swans supporter revolving around the role of Errol Gulden, and we both concluded that, although Gulden starts on the wing, he plays in a manner that reflects the following acronym.
EDWEW
Errol Does What Errol Wants.
He had 41 touches in a best-on-ground effort, as he torched the Giants all over the park, falling just 27 metres short of accumulating 1000 metres gained for the team.
That is some serious distance.
Working all over the park, he had a combined 12 inside/rebound 50s, and found the ball at will. I’d say you have to put time into him, but hell… you have to put time into Heeney, Warner, and now James Rowbottom (32 touches, 20 contested, and 11 clearances).
This Swans midfield is something else.
SAM DURHAM
I love watching this bloke – he is a bull.
If you had a brick wall to put in front of him, I’d suggest making it double-brick. Nothing impedes his run at the footy – I don’t care if there are one, two, or three opposition players in the way, Durham crashes and bashes his way through the contest like Juggernaut from the X-Men.
At 23, he is now firmly in the frame as Essendon’s next midfield star, and with his combative approach to the game, if you’re an Essendon supporter, I’d like to hear your argument as to why he is not your favourite Bomber.
HAYDEN YOUNG
Speaking of young mids, Hayden Young is compiling the kind of season that simply cannot be ignored.
At the start of the year, I was advocating for his move into the guts. He is strong, composed, and delivers the footy well. He did his time as a half-back, but it was pretty soon apparent that the midfield was going to be his position. However, with Serong, Brayshaw, Fyfe, Brodie, and O’Meara all in the mix, it was about finding an opportunity and making the most of it.
He has found it in 2024, taken it, and now owns it.
With three goals to go with his 24 touches, this bloke hurts teams. If he gets the footy in motion, you’re in trouble. And with Brayshaw and Serong to work alongside, the emergence of Hayden Young has made Freo fans forget the name of Adam Cerra.
Who?
THE LOSERS
CHAMPION DATA
Righto, so in the section above, we saw that Tom De Konng handed his younger brother a bit of an ass-whipping.
There’s no getting around it – he did. When the game was there to be won, Tom was The Man.
So the game concluded, and Champion Data started talking about the highest-rated games by a pair of brothers, and right at the top were the De Koning Brothers. Apparently, Sam was so good, he was the second highest-rated player on the ground.
I’m calling bullshit on that one.
You see, Champion Data have not yet learnt how to rate defence, and like it or not, defence is a massive part of footy. What was Sam doing to stop Tom’s dominance?
Nothing.
Then how can he be rated so highly?
They have no answer, because they cannot rate defence. They can rate tagging. They cannot rate influence. All are massive factors in a game of footy.
They should forget their “player ratings” and call their formula what it is “stat ratings” because the eye test told me that Tom trounced his little brother, and no amount of stat-padding late in a game overrides that.
KEN HINKLEY
The drums have been beating for a while, and I have tried to ignore them, but after a 79-point mauling at the hands of the Lions, I get the feeling that Ken Hinkley is now a dead man walking. Still better looking than Sean Penn, but dead, nonetheless.
It was telling on Saturday, when the camera panned to Ken on the boundary in the last quarter, and the Power faithful booed him… that is the type of thing boards take notice of. It’s the type of thing that spooks them.
It’s going to take something special for Ken Hinkley to remain coach of this team. A huge run of wins is required, and I reckon we need to see two finals wins if he is to stay alive in this role.
Sadly, I can’t see it happening. I genuinely like him, but I can also read the writing on the wall.
STEVEN MAY
In a time when the AFL is attempting to take any head injury seriously, I’ve often thought that there have been players looking to “accentuate” contact in tackles to be rewarded a free kick. It has been happening all season, and I have no issue stating that the actions of some players being tackled have absolutely contributed to tackles becoming dangerous.
However, May took it to another level on Saturday night with a pathetic effort to draw a free kick, by pretending to hit his head on the turf in an Eddie Ford tackle.
May’s head did not make contact with the ground, and really, he should have been penalised for holding the ball after he was spun around more than 360 degrees.
However, not only did the umpire fall in line with the rest of his kind, and not pay the free kick three weeks after they changed the interpretation, but he was also sucked in by May holding his head and acting like he was hurt.
It was a shit house act from May, a shit house call from the umpire, and it is a shit house situation that we now have players so tone-deaf to what is going on, they’re staging for free kicks for dangerous tackles. Grow up.
MATT FLYNN
It was a big chance for Matt Flynn to stand up for the Eagles against the Bombers, and prove there was no need to go out and find a good number one ruckman for 2025.
He blew it.
So did Bailey Williams, actually.
Despite being in what was basically a two-on-one situation (Peter Wright attended only six centre bounces), the pair were impotent against Sam Draper, managing just 11 disposals and zero marks between them for the entire game.
Draper got better as the game progressed, and finished with 17 disposals, six clearances, and 32 hit outs, making both Eagles rucks look second-rate.
I hear Tim English is a Restricted Free Agent after 2024…
BAILEY HUMPRHEY
What has happened to this bloke?
Sometimes, I hear people making comparisons between young players and established stars of the game. This may have been incredibly unfair in relation to Humphrey, as he got the “he plays in the Dustin Martin style” kind of comparison.
No pressure, right?
Well, here’s Humphrey’s last three games
Round 13 – Nine touches, one goal
Round 14 – Three disposals, no goals
Round 15 – Four disposals, no goals
Some players have second year blues…
In year two, Dusty averaged 22.09 disposals and 1.5 goals per game. Keep those comparisons, and the subsequent expectations, in check.
Got your own? Maybe me as a loser for pointing the finger at a second-year player? I’ll cop that. Or me again, for forgetting to do this column last week? Yep, I’m a dick, evidently. Time to whack them up in the comments or on our socials.
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