Ask, and thou shalt receive.
It goes a little something like that, doesn’t it?
Just last week, I started this column by asking if a standout wingman would please stand up. Not because I was talking down about the blokes at the top after Round Seven. Not at all, but more because we’d yet to really see a wingman grab a game by the scruff of the neck and impose his will on it.
We saw this in Round Eight.
In one fell swoop, Massimo D’Ambrosio has set the Hawk amongst the pigeons in the Robert Flower award, with one of, or perhaps THE, biggest score in the six years we’ve been running this thing.
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.
Can the leaders fight back? Or has Massimo D’Ambrosio just landed an early knockout punch as we compete for ‘The Robbie’?
But first, the Round Eight results and overall Leaderboard.
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