GEELONG assistant coach Nigel Lappin believes the only way is up for young Cats defender Sam De Koning.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Speaking with Lappin about De Koning on SEN SA Breakfast<\/em>, Kane Cornes described the youngster as a \u201crevelation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cCredit to the coaching group, early on this year there was one game where he was out marked a few times and you thought, \u2018he\u2019s a bit all at sea\u2019, but by the second half he looked like he was owning the position,\u201d Cornes said.<\/p>\n In response, Lappin revealed that the Cats see De Koning as a prototype of the modern defender.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel like he\u2019s got lots of room for improvement,\u201d Lappin said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe good thing about Sam too is that he\u2019s not just a one position player, [but] he\u2019ll probably end up playing him most of his career as a key defender.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you think about the King brothers, they\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe good thing about Sam is he\u2019s not just a pure defender, he\u2019s got a great set of hands, he judges the ball in the air as well as I\u2019ve ever seen, so he really backs himself in the air and when he gets his hands to it, he generally marks it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cats have the oldest list in the competition and are also ranked first for average games played.<\/p>\n They\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s [De Koning] going to be a really good player for us over a long period of time, but we\u2019ve also got some other players we\u2019re looking forward to developing this year as well,\u201d Lappin said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve seen us play Cooper Stephens over the last couple of weeks, we\u2019ve got a midfield that is pretty mature, Brandan Parfitt is one of the younger ones we play in there and he\u2019s having a good year.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n