Cats’ high hopes for young defender

GEELONG assistant coach Nigel Lappin believes the only way is up for young Cats defender Sam De Koning.

De Koning, 21, has been a vital cog for Geelong down back in 2022, playing both a lockdown and intercepting role just 10 games into his career.

The first-round draft pick is averaging six intercept possessions and two contested marks among his average of 12 disposals this season and has a very promising future ahead of him.

Speaking with Lappin about De Koning on SEN SA Breakfast, Kane Cornes described the youngster as a “revelation”.

“Credit to the coaching group, early on this year there was one game where he was out marked a few times and you thought, ‘he’s a bit all at sea’, but by the second half he looked like he was owning the position,” Cornes said.

In response, Lappin revealed that the Cats see De Koning as a prototype of the modern defender.

“We feel like he’s got lots of room for improvement,” Lappin said.

“The good thing about Sam too is that he’s not just a one position player, [but] he’ll probably end up playing him most of his career as a key defender.

“When you think about the King brothers, they’re all 200 centimetres plus these guys, so to have a player like Sam that can play on those types, and he really enjoys the challenge.

“The good thing about Sam is he’s not just a pure defender, he’s got a great set of hands, he judges the ball in the air as well as I’ve ever seen, so he really backs himself in the air and when he gets his hands to it, he generally marks it.”

The Cats have the oldest list in the competition and are also ranked first for average games played.

They’re supposedly on the edge of the cliff in terms of entering a list rebuild, however, Lappin said the club is keen to bring some talented young midfielders into the club.

“He’s [De Koning] going to be a really good player for us over a long period of time, but we’ve also got some other players we’re looking forward to developing this year as well,” Lappin said.

“You’ve seen us play Cooper Stephens over the last couple of weeks, we’ve got a midfield that is pretty mature, Brandan Parfitt is one of the younger ones we play in there and he’s having a good year.

“But it’s really important over the next few years that we bring some really good quality midfielders through, because so many of the other teams have got those.”

– BY SEB MOTTRAM/ SEN