I hold off on these articles for the first four rounds or so, because until things start to settle, we get a very skewed representation of how players are travelling.
After Round Four, I feel a little more confident that we’re able to provide a more accurate picture of how the new faces at clubs are going.
And so, with that in mind, we launch into our first ‘Recruit of the Year’ results for 2025.
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 Four.
1 – JACK MACRAE – 32.0
2 – JOSH BATTLE – 28.5
3 – CALEB DANIEL 27.5
4 – MATT KENNEDY – 27.0
5 – TOM BARRASS – 26.0
6 – LUKE PARKER – 25.0
7 – HARRY PERRYMAN – 25.0
8 – JAMES PEATLING – 24.5
9 – ALEX NEAL-BULLEN – 24.0
10 – JOE RICHARDS – 23.0
ANALYSIS
Cats fans are up in arms… where’s Bailey Smith, right?
He’s 13th. He missed a game, remember? As did Daniel Rioli and Dan Houston. And now, Houston will miss another. Don’t panic – it’s a long season.
I don’t think there can be much argument against the bloke in the number one spot. With Bont going down, he sure would have been handy at the Dogs… that’s the line people are using. But that would be discounting how good Matt Kennedy has been for the club, wouldn’t it?
Anyway, Macrae has become the workhorse that the Saints needed. Even with Jack Steele out, he was able to put the midfield on his back and carry them to a win – you have to lose seeing that.
Back to Kennedy at four, it’s probably fair to say nobody saw him having as big an impact as he is having at this stage. He is tough in the clinches, and never stops throwing his body into the contest.
You could argue the same for Carlton about Kennedy as people are about the Dogs and Macrae.
Caleb Daniel is scoring well at North, but he was marked down this week due to his involvement in the half-back kick-to-kick the club engaged in. They lacked potency and direction from half-back, and that’s what Daniel was brought in to provide. He didn’t. Not this week, anyway.
Josh Battle has been a monster for the Hawks, and I have him as more influential, at the moment, than his fellow recruit, Tom Barrass. He was best-on-ground in my eyes against Carlton, and has hardly put a foot wrong all season.
Down further, both of the Crows are making significant contributions to the rise of Adelaide this season, and I expect both to finish pretty highly once things settle down. Both Peatling and ANB play the types of games that reliant on effort, and neither have lacked that over the opening month of the season.
So, I am planning on updating this once per fortnight, as it is an easy column to do, 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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