I love this time of year.
Over the first few weeks of the season, we get a few surprises. There are upsets, as we saw with the Tigers rolling the Blues on the weekend, muscles are flexed, as witnessed by the Cats’ destruction of the Dockers, and we saw those destined to contend again do what they do best, as the Lions vanquished the Swans in a tight one.
Amongst all that, we had the defenders – the big blokes who kill the contests, the interceptors who cut off attacks at the knees, and the rebounders, who turn defence into attack.
And The Mongrel was all over their performances, as we always are, as we commence our 2025 edition of the Defensive Player of the Year Award.
The Mongrel Punt DPOY fills a hole in the AFL landscape.
With so much attention lavished on the midfielders and forwards, I found that outside of the All-Australian team, there was no real recognition for the best defenders in the game. It was the same for wingmen, and we now cover those players in our Robbie Flower Wingman of the Year Award.
The Defensive Player of the Year does not have the name of a great player attached to it (yet) but what it does have is six years of data analysing the best defenders in the game, ranking them on a weekly basis, and compiling that data into a leaderboard for each season.
We started this in 2020, with Fremantle’s interceptor/defender making the most of the shortened season to win the inaugural award. This accompanied his initial All-Australian selection, however, since then only none of our DPOY selections have worn the blazer – how they missed out is genuinely concerning when you look at who did make it in those seasons.
Previous winners listed below.
2020 – LUKE RYAN
2021 – JACOB WEITERING
2022 – JAMES SICILY
2023 – HARRIS ANDREWS
2024 – SAM COLLINS/LACHIE WHITFIELD (TIED)
How does it work?
Each week, defenders are ranked in a range of categories pertinent to their roles as defenders. These include disposals combined with efficiency, one-percenters, intercepts, rebound 50s, metres gained, tackles, as well as votes from a range of sources.
There is particular focus on the purest of the defensive art – the spoils, and players who excel in that area tend to score consistently throughout the season, as evidenced by Andrews, Weitering, and Collins winning the award.
That said, the man who shared the award with Collins in 2024, Lachie Whitfield, proved that there is definitely scope for a running, rebounding defender to take the award home, too. We are as close to an equal-opportunity DPOY award as you’ll find.
With that in mind, let’s kick off our 2025 scoring.
I’ve combined Round Zero and Round One scores together, given the screw-up that was the Opening Round of 2025. You may see a couple of players on the list that you believe are unworthy of a spot at this point, but I urge you to consider that they may have a game in-hand at this stage.
Yep, that’s it for non Inner-Circle members. Sorry people – see below.
Now, I know some of you will ask – I am a member; why can’t I see this? This is for the Inner Circle Member tier – always has been. This is what these people generously pay a bit extra for, so I am more than happy to dive deep for them when it comes to this content. If you’re a Mongrel Member and you’d like to upgrade, go right ahead. If not, that’s cool, as well. But this is not a new thing – has been that way for over three years now. Wanna join them?
