We’re starting to see things level out in the 2025 Recruit of the Year Award.
Those who made the early jumps are being reeled in. Those who missed a game are now making up the ground. And the poor old Suns and Bombers… well, they’re still a week behind everyone else.
After Round Seven, we have joint leaders, as the leaderboard becomes a little congested at the top.
How does it work?
Well, it’s simply, really… much like me.
Each week, players are assessed a score out of ten for their performance. This ensures we are rewarding consistency as much as we are big one-off games. A player scoring three consistent 7/10 games will be ahead of the one that has two massive weeks, and scores 8.5 in both, then disappears for a couple of weeks and returns three and fours. I like it – it works for me.
I suppose the only downfall is that if a player is going particularly well, and then cops an injury or suspension, the pack catches him very quickly.
As Ned Kelly, and more famously, Ben Cousins said… such is life.
Previous winners of The Mongrel’s Recruit of the Year as follows.
2022 – Will Brodie
2023 – Tim Taranto
2024 – Brodie Grundy
Let’s jump into the leaderboard, and a bit of analysis after Round Seven.
Positions after Round Four in parentheses
=1 – JOSH BATTLE – 48.5 PTS (2)
=1 – JACK MACRAE – 48.5 (1)
3 – MATT KENNEDY – 47.5 (4)
4 – BAILEY SMITH – 44.0 (NA)
5 – TOM BARRASS – 43.0 (5)
6 – JOHN NOBLE – 42.5 (NA)
=7 – CALEB DANIEL – 42.0 (3)
=7 – ALEX NEAL-BULLEN – 42 (9)
9 – HARRY PERRYMAN – 41.5 (7)
10 – LUKE PARKER – 41.5 (6)
ANALYSIS
So, we remain at the point where a missed game here or there still costs a fair bit in this ranking system.
Thus far, the ones to keep an eye on, in my opinion, are not in the top three.
Both Bailey Smith and John Noble have missed a game each. Smith missed one due to injury, but Noble is the interesting case. He has been incredibly good for the Suns off half-back, but his missed game at this stage will be made up later in the year, as both the Suns and Bombers had their Round Zero game postponed.
This means that Noble is just six points off the lead with a game in-hand. Given his average score to date is 7.1 per game, he is sitting right where he’d like to be.
Smith has been great for the Cats, and continues to produce at a high level. If he had not missed that one game, and scored his average (7.3), guess who’d be at the top of the table?
You’re old pal, Bazlenka.
His return has exceeded my expectations to this point of the season. I always believe players coming back from an ACL are a little bit off where they should/could be, but he is dismantling that theory.
Anyway, at the top, Jack Macrae has had the crown slip a little over the past three weeks. He had a blindingly good start, but he has gone from averaging 32 touches per game over his first four games, to 20.7 over his next three.
That has opened the door for Battle, who has tied things up following a big outing against the Eagles on the weekend.
Matt Kennedy continues to provide tremendous value for the Dogs, it is probably lucky that the Blues have started winning, as there were plenty of Bagger fans really lamenting their decision to allow him to leave after 2024.
Missed games to James Peatling (suspension) and Joe Richards saw them tumble out of the top ten, whilst Liam Baker and Nick Haynes are now climbing.
Most disappointing recruit of the year?
Injuries aside. I reckon it has to be Jake Stringer. His inaccuracy has cost him dearly, and with a return of just 3.12 for the season, he is not holding up his end of the bargain, as yet. He is getting the opportunities, but another wayward week might see him sent back to the VFL to find some form.
How the mighty have fallen…
So, I was planning on updating this once per fortnight, as it is an easy column to do. However, I cocked that up by waiting an extra week, so hopefully now, I will be back on track. And given it is such a… ummm… prestigious honour, I am sure all involved will appreciate the effort.
There we go. Agree or disagree with the rankings? I’m all ears. Not that I have big ears – I like to think they are proportionate to the rest of my head. Maybe my head is big, too?
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
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