Mick McGuane’s mid-season awards: Team of the Year, Best Coach, Player, Recruit, Draftee and more
It’s easy to say the AFL’s premier coach is the one in charge of the team at the top of the ladder. But there’s so much more than makes John Longmire the best in the business, writes MICK MCGUANE.
The AFL mid-season byes are here, marking the halfway point of the 2024 season.
AFL analyst Mick McGuane has taken a look at the standout performers to this point of the season – along with the biggest disappointments.
MID-SEASON TEAM OF THE YEAR
B: Jordan Clark (Fremantle), Harris Andrews (Brisbane Lions), Liam Jones (Western Bulldogs)
HB: Nick Blakey (Sydney), Steven May (Melbourne), Lachie Whitfield (GWS Giants)
C: Errol Gulden (Sydney), Nick Daicos (Collingwood), Josh Daicos (Collingwood)
HF: Gryan Miers (Geelong), Jesse Hogan (GWS Giants), Christian Petracca (Melbourne)
F: Bayley Fritsch (Melbourne), Charlie Curnow (Carlton), Izak Rankine (Adelaide)
FOLL: Max Gawn (Melbourne – Captain), Isaac Heeney (Sydney), Chad Warner (Sydney)
INT: Tom Stewart (Geelong), Zach Merrett (Essendon), Marcus Bontempelli (Western Bulldogs), Kyle Langford (Essendon), Max Holmes (Geelong)
I know what the No. 1 question on this team will be.
Where’s Patrick Cripps?
I’m a big fan of the Carlton captain and love the work he does in-tight at clearances.
However, I can’t have him ahead of my other midfielders in this side.
The modern game is about transition runners and Cripps isn’t as good as Heeney, Warner, Daicos, Merrett or Bontempelli at getting up and back.
He is also not having the scoreboard impact that those on-ballers are.
Cripps is averaging 6.3 score involvements — the lowest of that mentioned group — and has kicked only eight goals from his 11 games this season.
Cripps wasn’t the only stiff player to miss out on my mid-season team of the year.
Zak Butters, Jordan Dawson, Caleb Serong, Adam Treloar, Jake Waterman, Nick Vlastuin, Luke Ryan, Sam Flanders, Andrew McGrath, Dayne Zorko and Zach Guthrie are among others who can consider themselves unlucky.
However, I picked a balanced team with a focus on speed and I’ve put players in positions that they actually play — as opposed to spitting out extra on-ballers onto the wing or across half-forward.
You could argue that Petracca — who I’ve put at half-forward — is an onballer.
However, he has spent 27 per cent of his time forward this year, and that percentage is rising every week — and is averaging 1.2 goals, 2.6 score assists and 8.9 score involvements a game.
I opted for flexibility on the bench rather than a second ruckman, with captain Gawn capable of shouldering the load.
Only players who had featured in at least 10 of their side’s first 11 games were eligible for selection in my side — ruling out players like GWS defender Sam Taylor.
COACH OF THE YEAR – JOHN LONGMIRE
Sydney finished eighth last year before losing an elimination final to Carlton.
This year, Longmire has the Swans sitting pretty on top of the ladder at round 12 with only one loss to their name and a very healthy percentage of 150.
On almost every key statistical measure, Sydney stacks up — not least being that it ranks No. 1 for both points for and points against.
The Swans are a high-pressure team who are hard to play against and Longmire has made some key moves.
The recruitment of ruckman Brodie Grundy during the trade period last year has been a masterstroke, as has been the midfield move of Isaac Heeney.
Longmire has been prepared to make tough calls, including making veteran Luke Parker come back through the VFL.
That helps create pressure on spots and a good environment within clubs.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR – ISAAC HEENEY
A big reason behind Sydney’s rise up the ladder this season has been Heeney.
He’s my clear Brownlow Medal favourite to this stage of the year.
During pre-season, the Swans identified that Heeney had the preparation and maturity to finally play a starting onball role — and he has done so to aplomb.
Some midfielders win plenty of the footy but do limited damage.
Heeney isn’t one of those.
Almost everything he touches turns to gold.
The 28-year-old is an outstanding one-touch player around clearances but also runs hard both ways where he can impact incredibly well in the air for a player of his size.
He gets back to support his defence aerially and pushes forward to provide a marking target in attack, where he has been a real weapon taking 13 marks inside-50.
Heeney has kicked 17 goals across 11 games, along with averaging 8.5 score involvements from his 26.4 disposals a game.
He’s leading the AFL Coaches Association Player of the Year Award by 12 votes — for good reason.
RECRUIT OF THE YEAR – BRODIE GRUNDY
It’s hard to believe that Grundy was playing VFL football in the second half of last season.
He has returned to being one of the premier ruckman of the competition in his new colours at the Swans.
Sydney saw an opportunity to lure Grundy north from Melbourne — and it’s paid off, as his performance against Max Gawn and the Demons was ominous for the rest of the competition from the get-go.
He has filled the No. 1 ruck role for the ladder-leading Swans, while allowing Hayden McLean to spend more time forward where he can be a damaging marking playing.
McLean has kicked 13 goals from 11 games this season, along with providing back-up ruck support.
Grundy’s ruck craft is great, but I also love his follow-up work.
He has laid 66 tackles this season — the second-most of any Sydney player behind James Rowbottom.
He has also won 59 clearances — the second-most of any Swan behind Heeney.
There looks to be some smart management going on, too.
Grundy has played only 76 per cent game time this season, compared to Melbourne’s captain Gawn at 85 per cent.
It’s a long year and the Swans will want Grundy playing his best footy come September.
DRAFTEE OF THE YEAR – DARCY WILSON
We made Harley Reid ineligible for this award, given he’s a runaway Rising Star favourite and we wanted to shine a spotlight on someone else.
For mine, Wilson has been the next-best performer from the 2023 draft class.
St Kilda has been a major disappointment so far this season, but Wilson has been a real asset who has stood out.
He’s spent about 65 per cent of his time playing as a high half-forward and 35 per cent on a wing.
Besides his impressive running abilities, the thing I like most about this 18-year-old is his ability to see options that other’s don’t.
That’s perhaps the reason why he has had the equal-second most goal assists at the Saints this season.
Wilson reminds me a little bit of Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters.
He started his career as a half-forward, before becoming an onball star.
In a couple of years, Wilson could grow into a starting midfielder, too, and bolster an area of the ground where St Kilda desperately needs some more zip.
SURPRISE OF THE YEAR – ESSENDON
I for one didn’t have the Bombers in my top-eight predictions during pre-season.
Midway through the year, they sit second on the ladder.
Yes, they have only just scraped over the line in some games and have had a fairly favourable fixture across the early part of the year.
But what has impressed me most about Essendon is the defensive adjustments that they have made.
There is an intent to tackle and chase – led by captain Merrett – which hasn’t always been there from the midfield group in the past.
It is helping the defenders to set up better and concede fewer scores.
Coach Brad Scott has brought selection integrity to the table, not rushing in players who are not ready and leaving players in the VFL if they are not conforming to what is required.
The list management team over the off-season was also on-point.
Ben McKay has strengthened the backline considerably, Jade Gresham has brought a spark to the forward half, Todd Goldstein has been vital in the ruck in the absence of Sam Draper and wingman Xavier Duursma will only get better with the more games he plays.
There’s still upside to come, too.
Jordan Ridley played his first game of the year last weekend — a huge asset to come into the side in the middle of the year. Zach Reid might be next.
The Bombers still have some challenges ahead, but look a much more complete team in 2024.
MOST DISAPPOINTING TEAM OF YEAR – BRISBANE LIONS
There aren’t many excuses for last year’s grand finalists, who many tipped to go one step further and win a flag in 2024.
There are 12 Lions who have played every game this season and a further five who have missed only one match.
That is 17 core players who have regularly been on the park, yet Brisbane has won just four of its first 11 matches.
This team is not playing anywhere near their upper capabilities consistently enough. I don’t know what type of performance you will get from them each week. I don’t trust their two key forwards in Joe Daniher and Eric Hipwood.
The Lions belted Richmond by 119 points in round 11, but then fell to fellow bottom-four side Hawthorn by 25 points in round 12.
Unless they get the hunger back — and quickly — they won’t be back in September action this year.
Coach Chris Fagan has showed a lot of faith in his group, but is it blind faith now?
Fagan might need to ruffle some feathers and make some hard calls if their season slips away any further.
ITS BIG SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR FOR…..THE WESTERN BULLDOGS
Much like the Lions, you just don’t know what you are going to get from the Bulldogs each week.
They are the competition’s yoyo team.
Many thought the Bulldogs had a strong list entering this year — including myself.
Maybe we were wrong.
There have been some injury and continuity issues, but your ability to push on with a ‘one soldier out, one soldier in’ mentality defines your list.
It might be a bit of a reality check that outside the top-end talent, the Bulldogs are a bit thin.
How they cover the loss of Aaron Naughton will be intriguing, given Rory Lobb is waiting in the wings but reportedly wants out at the end of the year.
There’s still a question mark on Tom Liberatore’s health and small forward Cody Weightman has been sorely missed with an elbow injury.
The next six weeks will really sort the Bulldogs out.
They face games against Collingwood, Brisbane Lions, Fremantle, North Melbourne, Port Adelaide and Carlton.
If the season goes pear-shaped and finals become out of reach, there will be conversations held about whether respected premiership coach Luke Beveridge is the right man to take the club forward.
Intriguing times ahead.
MICK’S HOT TAKES
GOOD
Lloyd Johnston’s backflip. Footy has become a sterile environment in a lot of ways, so it was good to see Gold Coast youngster Johnston show a bit of character with an amazingly athletic goal celebration which brought his team together against the Blues. Talking about athleticism, GWS defender Leek Aleer’s game-saving mark against Geelong was also a highlight and the reaction from his teammates when the final siren sounded was priceless.
BAD
St Kilda are a mediocre team at the moment. What do they stand for? Football is a game that is meant to be fun to play and exciting to watchl, but with the Saints right know they are very ordinary on the eye. If you take out their wins over North Melbourne and Collingwood — when they scored 103 and 94 points respectively — kicking goals has been very hard to come by. They are the competition’s “snooze fest” team to watch.
UGLY
Inconsistent umpiring. If not handing the ball directly back to the umpire for a ball-up is against the rules, pay free kicks for it consistently so that players and fans know the go. There were examples of similar incidents to what happened in the Fremantle v Collingwood match last week that were not penalised, which is why there was mass confusion. Just stick to the rule book and do it consistently.
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