At the conclusion of the 2019 season, I found myself somewhat frustrated with the way the AFL treated several roles.
I didn’t believe the league treated defenders with the respect they deserved. As such, I created our Defensive Player of the Year Award. Four years in, now… we have tenure. 🙂
However, at least the defenders had the opportunity to own their roles in the All-Australian team every year. The selectors had not yet worked out how to squeeze two or three midfielders into the mix. Not yet, anyway.
Wingmen weren’t afforded the privilege of a spot in the AA team, though.
1n 2019, it was renowned wingmen, Marcus Bontempelli and Tim Kelly allocated the wing spots in the team. The pair of them likely spent less than a quarter of one game playing the role, but the selectors couldn’t leave them out…
… which would be fine if they were the best at their actual positions. But they weren’t. They were gifted their places.
In 2020, the honours went to Jack Macrae and Cam Guthrie – both fifth and sixth-choice mids. Then it was Zach Merrett and Sam Walsh in 2021, and Touk Miller and Callum Mills in 2022.
Not a genuine wingman amongst them.
We commenced our Wingman of the Year Award in 2020 and are now in year four of its existence. The winners of this award are as follows.
2020 – Sam Menegola
2021 – Paul Seedsman
2022 – Karl Amon
2023 sees a new opportunity for someone to etch their name in stone (or on a footy website, at least, as the best at their specialist position. Using a combination of statistical data, coaches’ votes, and our own Mongrel votes, we’ve created a formula to assess the wingmen on a weekly basis and feed into an overall ranking. The stats used are all pertinent to the way a good wingman operates. – disposals and efficiency, inside 50s, rebound 50s, metres gained, score involvement and goals kicked, and a few others.
So, without further ado, let’s jump into the Round Three results and overall rankings.
Uh oh… paywall. Standalone content for our members will be published every week on The Mongrel Punt. This will include articles like this, mongrel midfield and ruck championship updates, weird statistical categories I discover, and much more. Want to join us?
