David King has made his Brownlow, Rising Star and wooden spoon predictions for the 2021 AFL season. And they might turn some heads!
The North Melbourne great believes Gold Coast Suns young gun Matt Rowell will achieve a rare double feat that has never been accomplished in the history of the game.
King predicts that Rowell, who turns 20 in July, will win both the Brownlow and Rising Star awards in the same season.
The prestigious former Pick 1 took the competition by storm in his first four matches in 2020 - where he averaged 21.2 possessions per game and booted six goals to lead the Suns to a 3-1 start to the season.
However, he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Round 5 in a major blow for Gold Coast and footy fans alike.
Having racked up nine Brownlow votes from effectively four games in 2020, King tipped him to continue to poll strongly this season.
“Matty Rowell, I just think this guy is going to get all the votes up there,” King told SEN’s Whateley.
“He’s going to be like Patrick Dangerfield wherever Patrick’s been. Whether it be Adelaide or Geelong.
“They’re just such a presence and their numbers are so strong, game after game. You’ve already seen what he did last year. He got nine Brownlow votes, three best on grounds in four opportunities.
“I think one man can change a club so much.
“Lachie Neale went to Brisbane and changed their whole contested possession profile. We saw Dangerfield go to Geelong and do the same.
“He’s not your normal kid. I just hope that he has a clear run at the season and if he does … they’ll be winning a lot more than five games.”
King also predicted that Hawthorn will claim its first wooden spoon in 56 years, tumbling from a 15th-place finish in 2020 where they won just five of 17 games.
Last year marked the the Hawks' first bottom-four finish since Alastair Clarkson's first year at the club in 2004 in a disappointing campaign for the brown and gold.
And King believes the combination of Hawthorn's growing injury list and improvement of teams around them will see them plummet to the bottom of the ladder.
“I’m going to give you my starting point, the Kangaroos aren’t winning the wooden spoon, and I think the Crows are going to get significantly better,” King added.
“The Hawks have lost (Jack) Gunston for the bulk of the pre-season period. (James) Sicily is out for a fair chunk of the season.
“Have they got significantly better with their recruits?
“I’m not seeing them spike as much as some of the others around them. In the end you’ve got to write a name down and I wrote down the Hawks.
“I think it’s going to be a challenging season for them. We’ve said that Alastair Clarkson is unconventional in the way he’s rebuilding this Hawthorn team.
“I need to see it first before I believe it.”
Hawthorn's 11 wooden spoons is tied for the fourth-most in VFL/AFL history, last claiming the league's most unwanted silverware in 1965.
