It’s all bunched up at the top, with four players within sniffing distance of each other… and sniffing distance is pretty damn close. You’d know that if you went around sniffing people, wouldn’t ya?
As we head into Gather Round, we have the usual early chaos of the first month compounded with the continued fallout of Round Zero, which has players leaping into, and dropping out of the top ten all over the place.
In 2024, we are honoured and privileged at The Mongrel Punt to be granted permission from the Flower family to name our Wingman of the Year Award after one of the greatest players the Melbourne Football Club has ever produced.
The Robbie Flower Wingman of the Year Award covers one of the more neglected positions in the league over the last decade. Whilst 2023 saw some recognition for the outside runners, with both Josh Daicos and Errol Gulden named to the All-Australian team, it has largely been a role that has been overlooked by all except those with a keen eye for what wingmen mean to a team – the defensive running, the link-up play, the creativity, and the potent metres-gained aspect of their play.
Now in its fifth season, The Robert Flower Wingman of the Year is the only award of its kind, ranking the wingmen of the league on a weekly basis, combining statistical data with a voting structure to assess those playing the role.
Previous winners are as follows.
2020 – Sam Menegola (Geelong)
2021 – Paul Seedsman (Adelaide)
2022 – Karl Amon (Port Adelaide)
2023 – Josh Daicos (Collingwood)
How does the scoring work?
Well, eligible players are ranked from 1-10 and awarded points in a number of statistical categories pertinent to the role of the wingmen. This score is combined with applicable votes and a little formula to reward disposal efficiency, and viola!!! There is a total score at the end. It’s a nice little system and has been pretty accurate when assessing big performances in the role for four years, now.
The top of the leaderboard is now pretty tight – as close as it has ever been at this stage of the seasonl with just five points separating the top four wingmen in the game. Let’s jump in to this week’s rankings and the overall leaderboard to get to the bottom of what’s happening at the most under-appreciated position in the game.
The Robbie Flower Award is part of our Members-Only content. Now in year five, it is a cornerstone article of our site. I believe work such as this is worth twenty-five cents per day. If you don’t, that’s fine. You’re welcome to join and keep reading if you do.
