Mark Robinson: Specialised wingmen deserve to be recognised by All-Australian selectors
The All-Australian wing roles have traditionally been filled by extra on-ballers squeezed out of the middle. It’s high time that changed, writes Mark Robinson.
The 6-6-6 formation was said to be the rebirth of the wingman.
At the start of the season, the dialogue was consistent from all the media mouthpieces — the wing would become a specialist position.
All that space and isolation, the defensive running, and the inside 50m kick, well, that was supposed to be the most important kick in the game.
So, why shouldn’t there be specialist wingmen in the All-Australian team?
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Why shouldn’t Brisbane’s Hugh McCluggage and Mitch Robinson and Geelong’s Mitch Duncan — who play against each other on Saturday — be the favourites to fill the position?
Or Bulldog Lachie Hunter or West Coast’s Andrew Gaff or Fremantle’s Brad Hill.
Why is there a fear that the AA selectors will pick the gun midfielders, who haven’t left the centre square this season, on the wings?
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan said this week the last All-Australian selection meeting was
“fiery’’.
“It was the most debated and contested one (yet),” McLachlan said on 3AW.
“I think this is my sixth year of doing it; it was clearly the most contested.
“You’re trying to shape it up, you’ve got a strong body of work to look at and it got quite fiery.”
Let’s hope the firestorm was about this exact discussion.
But don’t hold your breath.
Last year it was Gaff and Steele Sidebottom on the wings.
In 2017, the positions were filled by Josh Kelly and Zach Merrett.
In 2016, Dan Hannebery and Rory Sloane.
In 2015, Hannebery and Gaff.
In 2014, Nathan Fyfe and Dyson Heppell.
In 2013, Ryan Griffen and Scott Pendlebury.
Merrett? Sloane? Fyfe? Heppell? Pendlebury? They are hardly wingmen.
The glut of midfielders this year, I suspect, will again present the selectors with an easy option.
Say the starting mids are Patrick Cripps, Nathan Fyfe and Lachie Neale, and maybe Patrick Dangerfield takes a forward flank.
That leaves Marcus Bontempelli, Jack Macrae, Adam Treloar, Luke Shuey, Elliot Yeo, Tim Kelly, Travis Boak, Dayne Zorko, Ben Cunnington, Dustin Martin, Pendlebury and Dion Prestia fighting for three positions on the bench.
That’s if you have either McCluggage, Hunter or Gaff on the wings.
It’s all about whether the selectors define the wing position as a specialist position or it remains part of the midfield group.
If it is part of the midfield group, then why all the hoopla at the start of the season — from experts and from the game analysts at AFL headquarters — about the re-emergence of the specialist wingman.
Jason Akermanis and Leigh Montagna have differing views.
Akermanis was named in four All-Australian sides — once in a back pocket, twice on a wing and once at half-forward.
He says McCluggage, the classy 21-year-old from the Lions, has to be selected.
“He’s the man to get the wing role,’’ he said.
“All the good players don’t fumble and they don’t hesitate and he doesn’t fumble and he doesn’t hesitate, he’s good under pressure, he’s clean, he’s good outside.
“To be a good outside payer you need to have anticipation, no one can teach that, you’ve got or you haven’t go it.
“To be in the best 22 players in the country is one thing, to be the best in your position has got to carry some weight.
“You’re right, the wing is a specialist position. Sometimes it’s such a selfless spot, the wing, you’ve got to do the defensive running, the offensive running and Hugh’s a great runner.
“That’s where he’s built his game on. And you can’t just off and do your own thing. It’s critical in any team.’’
St Kilda’s Montagna won back-to-back jackets as a wingman in 2009 and 2010 — all-time, contested-ball great Joel Selwood was on the other wing in both years.
He argues selectors need flexibility.
“I don’t think it should be purely the best 22 players and say you’re going have 18 midfielders, but you have to recognise the best players in the season,’’ he said.
“So, if there’s a midfielder who has played half the time as a forward and half the time in the midfield, you could put them on flank.
“If Dusty Martin is picked on a flank, I don’t think you could argue with that.
“If an inside mid plays predominantly as an onballer and plays a little bit of wing or an outside sort of role, they could play on a wing.
“I don’t think you have to necessarily pick the two best wingmen and put them on the wings.
“Because they are just part of the midfield group.
“You wouldn’t pick Fyfe, Cripps, Cunnington, Neale on a wing, you wouldn’t have six inside mids (in the team), but I don’t think anyone is going to complain if Jack Macrae is picked in the All-Australian team on the wing.
“You just have a balance, but it doesn’t have to specific.
“It’s a hypothetical team, it’s just a representation of the best 22 roughly in their positions.’’
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That certainly was the case in 2007 when Chad and Kane Cornes were named the wingmen in the AA team — one was a tagger and the other a key position player.
If the selectors want a true representation of a team, then true wingmen it should be.
The All-Australian team shouldn’t be all about stats, it should be about contribution to each specific position.
A case in point is the Bulldogs’ Lachie Hunter.
He’s played 89 per cent wing this year.
His teammates Bontempelli and Macrae have played one and three per cent respectively as wingmen. They are not wingmen.
So it should not be case of Hunter v Bontempelli/Macrae. It should be a case of Hunter v Gaff v McCluggage.
If not, the lack of identification and acknowledgment for the specialised wingman which was touted so highly at the start of the season is just another example of how pure midfielders continue to dominate the football landscape.
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Originally published as Mark Robinson: Specialised wingmen deserve to be recognised by All-Australian selectors
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