I’m not sure whether I’m doing this right and the AFL is dropping the ball in the way they pay homage to their defenders, or vice-versa.
For the third time in four years, the Mongrel Punt Defensive Player of the Year Award has gone to a man who did not make the All-Australian team.
Harris Andrews adds his name to the list of luminaries that have been crowned the DPOY here at the Mongrel, joining Luke Ryan (2020), Jacob Weitering (2021), and James Sicily (2022) as winners of the best award on offer for the defenders in the league. Of them, only Ryan has made the team in the season he won, although I reckon Sic was completely robbed in 2022 and they made up for it this year
Andrews’ omission from the AFL’s team of the year was likely the largest problem with the awards this season. He was the number one player in the league for one-percenters, averaging 10.48 per game. The key position players that made the AA team were all quite a way behind (Wilkie – 5.78, Moore – 7.90, Sicily – 4.63).
Whilst the AFL has become accustomed to rewarding flashiness, spoiling and doing the tough stuff remains one of the key facets of being a great defender. I get the feeling the All-Australian selectors may have decided that killing contests is no longer one of the factors they use to assess the value of a backman. If they did, Andrews would be first picked.
Interestingly, the three key defenders who made the team all rated highly in intercepts (Sicily – second, Moore – third, Wilkie- fifth). This is an aspect of the game that has become more prevalent in recent seasons. Andrews slotted in at 14th, perhaps indicating that his penchant for thumping the footy out of play and effectively taking his direct opponent out of the contest is no longer held in the regard it once was.
Players like Darren Glass, Dustin Fletcher, Matthew Scarlett, and Josh Gibson made spoiling an art form. Andrews has taken it to a new level, but it is a level that is seemingly discounted by the league when it comes to recognition.
However, the AFL’s decisions are not the basis of this article. At the end of the day, we are here to celebrate the wonderful season of Harris Andrews as he claimed his first Mongrel Punt Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Andrews finished on 750 points – the highest total in the four years of the competition. He was 85 points ahead of Tom Stewart, who finished fast to pass the injured Darcy Moore, whilst further back were Luke Ryan, Jack Sinclair, James Sicily, and Dan Houston.
And quickly, to avoid the inevitable questions of how it works, all stats are taken into consideration that are pertinent to defenders. One-percenters, intercepts, rebounds, metres gained, score launches, disposals when combined with efficiency, and contest win rates… and they’re totalled and combined with coaches’ votes to give a weekly total for players.
Players do not receive points every week. If they do not score in any of the categories assessed, they get a zero. It’s not a charity, but the better players score most consistently. Case in point, Andrews failed to score in just three games, Stewart in four. There have been some huge individual scores, but consistency usually balances things out.
Here are the final 20 standings for 2023
1 – HARRIS ANDREWS – 750 PTS
2 – TOM STEWART – 665 PTS
3 – DARCY MOORE – 597 PTS
4 – LUKE RYAN – 550 PTS
5 – JACK SINCLAIR – 549 PTS
6 – JAMES SICILY – 547 PTS
7 – DAN HOUSTON – 521 PTS
8 – NICK DAICOS – 515 PTS
9 – CALLUM WILKIE – 470 PTS
10 – SAM TAYLOR – 450 PTS
11 – NICK BLAKEY – 437.5 PTS
12 – HARRY SHEEZEL – 413 PTS
13 – STEVEN MAY – 372 PTS
14 – JACK BUCKLEY – 371 PTS
15 – JACOB WEITERING – 366.5 PTS
16 – SAM COLLINS – 345 PTS
17 – BRENNAN COX – 330 PTS
E18 – LACHIE WHITFIELD – 326 PTS
E18 – BAILEY DALE – 326 PTS
E20 – MITCH HINGE – 300 PTS
E20 – ALIIR ALIIR – 300 PTS
For those who were questioning Tom Stewart’s inclusion in the AA team, I guess his position in this award would stick in your craw a little. Make no mistake, without Stewart this season, the Cats would have been nowhere near in contention for finals. He was a brick wall back there all season long – rarely beaten and always composed.
Jack Sinclair may have finished higher but for time spent in the midfield. There were several games where he incurred a points penalty due to spending too much time running through the guts.
How Nick Daicos would have finished is anyone’s guess. My guess, given that he was the top-ranked defender in this system when he switched to the midfield, is that if he continued to play off half-back, he’d be the man we were celebrating in this column right now.
Sam Taylor making the top ten despite missing eight games is brilliant. I have little doubt that he is the form key defender in the league at the moment, and Inner Circle members will see below that he is quickly climbing the list of Defensive Double-Double owners at a swift rate.
Cal Wilkie… he was the most contentious pick of the AA defenders in my book. He had a great start to the season, with the bulk of his points coming in the first half of the season. In a way, I like that he was selected in the AA team, as it proved that the AA selectors were not discounting the first half of the season, as they have been known to do in the past.
And then we get to the big Lion.
Harris Andrews stampeded home, scoring in every round from Round 13 onwards. He was the only player to do this. His Round 15 and 17 outings were absolute lessons in defensive dominance. He had 10+ one-percenters in 15 of his 23 games this season and notched four games where he achieved double-figures in both one-percenters and intercepts (Defensive Double-Double).
Powerful and commanding, he is the perfect player to be crowned the 2023 Mongrel Punt Defensive Player of the Year.
Congrats to the big fella – he held that Brisbane defence together when a heap of experts said they’d fall over. And that is something that anyone who knows footy acknowledges and appreciates.
SEASON-HIGH SCORES
97 – LUKE RYAN – R17
94 – DARCY MOORE – R10
89 – JAMES SICILY – R11
89 – HARRIS ANDREWS – R15
87 – LUKE RYAN – R1
87 – SAM TAYLOR – R5
85 – NICK DAICOS – R5
85 – HARRIS ANDREWS – R17
84 – JACK SINCLAIR – R22
83 – TOM STEWART – R12
79 – BRENNAN COX – R1
78 – LIAM BAKER – R3
77 – MITCH HINGE – R16
77 – JAMES SICILY – R21
75 – SAM TAYLOR – R20
74 – BRODIE SMITH – R9
73 – DAN HOUSTON – R16
73 – HARRIS ANDREWS – R22
71 – CALLUM WILKIE – R8
71 – BAILEY DALE – R20
70 – DARCY MOORE – R7
70 – BLAKE HARDWICK – R15
67 – NICK DAICOS – R6
67 – NATHAN BROAD – R9
66 – CHARLIE BALLARD – R9
66 – MITCH HINGE – R21
66 – NICK BLAKEY – R22
65 – ALEX WITHERDEN – R19
64 – WILL POWELL – R7
63 – STEVEN MAY – R17
63 – DAN HOUSTON – R18
63 – SAM TAYLOR – R19
63 – SAM DOCHERTY – R19
62 – CAL WILKIE – R5
61 – DARCY MOORE – R8
61 – OLLIE FLORENT – R13
61 – SAM DOCHERTY – R14
61 – SAM TAYLOR – R17
60 – LUKE RYAN – R15
The remainder of this article is restricted.
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 two years now. Wanna join them?
