Well, here we go again.
We’ve now had all teams trot out to start their seasons, and it has well and truly thrown the cat amongst the pigeons in terms of our annual Robert Flower Wingman of the Year Award.
How so?
I’m glad I asked.
You see, over the last couple of years, two players have dominated the top of the table – Josh Daicos and Errol Gulden. In consecutive years, these two have finished first and second, with one award each. Daicos also added another second-place finish in 2022.
However, Josh is now playing off the half-back flank, and Errol Gulden is sitting on the sidelines, injured.
The race is wide open, with the two favourites all but scratched!
Injury to Gulden aside… I kind of like it!
But before we get started with the Round Zero/One scores, we must first pay homage to the man the name the award is named after.
In 2025, we are again 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 the last couple of years have seen some long overdue 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 sixth season, The Robert Flower Wingman of the Year Award 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)
2024 – Errol Gulden (Sydney)
Amazing that Paul Seedsman just had the best season of his career in 2021 and was forced to retire. Hope you’re now doing well, Seed.
This year, we have a new crop emerging as potential stars, as well as established players reverting to the wing in the latter stages of their careers. Where will the winner come from? Who can get the jump on the pack and take a big lead out of the first few weeks of footy?
Time to jump in and see.
Usually, about here I’d put the wall up and this would become members-only, but as it is the first of the season, I am leaving it open. If you like this, and want to follow the progress, by all means, jump on the link at the bottom of this article and become a Mongrel Member.
ROUND ZERO AND ROUND ONE RESULTS
Before going any further, I have to note that I made the executive decision to combine both Round Zero and Round One into one week of scoring. Round Zero was already a heavily-compromised matter, and one that took some significant adjustments to make the scoring equitable in 2024. This year would have been ridiculous, with only two games being played.
As such, this week’s scoring has been adjusted to take into account the additional two games that were played in Round Zero. Fingers crossed it actually works.
As it is the first round, we won’t be doing separate sections for weekly and overall… because that would be dumb.
ROUND ONE RESULTS
1 – PATRICK LIPINSKI – 93.7
2 – CALLAN WARD – 76.6
3 – JACK CRISP – 73.2
4 – MASSIMO D’AMBROSIO – 44.7
5 – JARROD BERRY – 41.0
6 – OLLIE DEMPSEY – 40.0
7 – XAVIER DUURSMA – 39.4
8 – LACHIE SHOLL – 36.2
9 – DARCY WILSON – 35.2
10 – TRAVIS BOAK – 32.2
BREAKDOWN
This is what I was talking about when I said the 2025 award is wide open. Of the 2024 top ten, just D’Ambrosio (3rd), and Lachie Sholl (8th) make the top ten after this week. Gulden and Daicos being absent means that this is game-on for any player with a few big weeks in them, but we’ve also had players come from the clouds to claim positions in the early running.
It must also be noted that the top four have all played two games, so Jarrod Berry sitting in fifth is in a very good position should he be able to back up his stellar Round One form.
On that, I did get a rather rude message from a Lions supporter in the pre-season. I released our seedings for the Robert Flower Award back at the start of February – long before mentions of positional changes, etc… Hell, even track watchers didn’t know what was going on with possible positional changes. Anyway, I was told I was a “hack” by someone who said that Berry would make my seedings “look like shit”.
Well, far be it from me to hide from getting one wrong. I may have got it wrong… based on Round One. Let’s see how things play out over the course of the season before we start tearing strips off me, hey? But yes, it was a nice game from Jarrod on the weekend. 🙂
No top ten for Brad Hill, this week. He was playing off half-back in the first half and moving up through the middle of the ground. He kind of just forgot to touch the footy, though, with just one disposal in the first two quarters. It was the worst half of footy I have seen him play. Ever. His second half was played on the wing, and he managed to get a little busy, with five touches and a goal. Basically, it was junk time stats.
Xavier Duursma was one of the bright lights for the Bombers. He worked tirelessly to get forward and punish the Hawk wingmen (D’Ambrosio and Josh Ward) as he had one of his better games in red and black. There is still hope for this bloke – he has all the tools to be an excellent wingman and was well on the way to being just that at Port, before a clash saw him suffer a knee and head injury in the same incident. He really wasn’t the same for a long while after that. Truth be told, I don’t think he has the same level of confidence right now as he had before that incident.
I genuinely felt for Trav Boak on the weekend. The poor bugger works his backside off for Port, and to have both ends of the ground fail so miserably while he is holding up his end of the bargain in a role he had to learn at the tail end of his career… it just strikes me as unfair.
I haven’t rated Josh Kelly, as yet. He is starting quarters on the wing, but quickly moves into the midfield. I kind of have his points sitting there in reserve should he spend more time in the wing role, but as it stands, he has attended 33 centre bounces over the first two games. That’s a few too many to be considered a wingman, I’m afraid.
MORE POSITIONAL CHANGES
At the start of every season, I get questions about why so-and-so isn’t included in the top ten, and often, people are basing those questions on what they’ve seen in the season prior. So I figure it’s best I get on the front foot in the first column of the year, and list a few of the changes here, just to make sure people are aware that some people they’re used to seeing on a wing, may not be there anymore, and vice-versa.
Moved on?
Josh Daicos to half-back
Caleb Windsor to half-back (I hate this move)
Brad Hill fluctuating between half-back and wing
Finn Callaghan moved into the midfield
Josh Kelly fluctuating between wing and midfield
Justin McInenery fluctuating between half-back, midfield, and wing
Kamdyn McIntosh playing midfield
Jaeger O’Meara seems to be back playing midfield, but I also think this will change.
Mason Wood is filling the gap up forward for the Saints
To the wing?
Cal Ward is an obvious one. Played a bit there in 24, but now seems permanent.
Pat Lipinski has taken Josh Daicos’ role and left the half-forward flank behind him.
Jack Crisp moved to the wing from the midfield/half-back. Not sure this’ll be a permanent switch.
Darcy Wilson played wing in Round One
Josh Ward dabbled in the role in 24, and spent most of the game on the wing in R1
Ollie Florent back to the wing.
Xavier Lindsay and Lucas Camporeale both played wing on debut
Colby McKercher spent a fair whack of time on the wing in Round One.
I’ll update this every once in a while, so that people can see why a certain player is surging or stagnating in the overall ratings.
So, who is my pick from here?
Far out, this is tough, as we could get Daicos back on the wing in Round Two, and Gulden rejoin the fray in six weeks and immediately start scoring big. Either of those happening change everything pretty drastically. If I discount those two, Massimo D’Ambrosio has runs on the board, but I feel like Blake Acres (currently 15th), or Ed Langdon (17th), are a good shout, as well.
As a roughie, if Jase Burgoyne can compose himself this week, I could see him scoring plenty against the young Tigers, as well.
And to cap things off, here are the highest overall single-round scores in the six years we’ve been tracking the performance of the wingmen.
ALL-TIME HIGHEST SCORES
123.7 – Mitch Robinson (R11, 2021)
109.4 – Errol Gulden (R13, 2024)
106.9 – Brad Hill (R5, 2024)
106.9 – Dan Houston (R1, 2022)
105.8 – Josh Kelly (R6, 2024)
105 – Isaac Smith (R4, 2022)
104.0 – Karl Amon (R20, 2021)
103.7 – Errol Gulden (R15, 2024)
102.3 – Errol Gulden (R14, 2024)
101.9 – Kyle Langford (R12, 2021)
101.9 – Jordan Dawson (R23, 2021)
101.2 – Josh Daicos (R24, 2024)
101.0 – Zach Merrett (R11, 2020)
Please note – the nature of some of these massive scores is commensurate with how other wingmen performed over that specific round. Robbo’s massive score was helped by other wingers not having their best weeks. This meant that Robinson soared to the top of several stat categories without stiff competition.
Shoe on the other foot, we’ve seen big performances from three wingmen in the same round result in scores of 60-70 for each, when their games may have been rated around the same level of Robbo had they not cut into each other’s scores in the same round.
Before I go, thanks once again to the Flower family for allowing us to name our Wingman of the Year after the great Robbie. My father has long since passed, but we used to attend games, and one thing I remember about whenever we watched Melbourne games was how much he admired Robbie.
“Bloody Robbie Flower”, he’d say, as Robbie did something amazing. “Someone stop bloody Robbie Flower.”
And then he’d turn to me, all of seven or eight at the time, and add “Hell of a player, that bloke,” just so I knew he didn’t hate the man. He just hated what Robbie was doing to his team.
What an honour to be permitted to name our award after him. Again…. Thank you.
Got a question about where someone finished? Happy to answer. Drop a comment below, or ask on our socials, and I’ll dive into my spreadsheet and see what I can find.
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
Like this content? You could buy me a coffee – I do like coffee, but there is no guarantee I won’t use it to buy a doughnut… I like them more. And I am not brought to you by Sportsbet or Ladbrokes… or Bet365, or any of them.
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