At a glance
2021 Premiers
Home & Away: 13 wins / 4 Losses – finished 3rd on the ladder
Wins
| Round 1 | Lethal Vipers |
| Round 2 | MaherShalalHashBaz |
| Round 3 | Feelin Dusty |
| Round 4 | Taxmanian Devils |
| Round 5 | Te Puke Pukekos |
| Round 6 | Roughnecks |
| Round 7 | Solomon’s Soldiers |
| Round 8 | Puttanesca Chiefs |
| Round 10 | Lethal Vipers |
| Round 11 | MaherShalalHashBaz |
| Round 15 | Feelin Dusty |
| Round 16 | Taxmanian Devils |
| Round 17 | Te Puke Pukekos |
| Elimination Final | MaherShalalHashBaz |
| Preliminary Final | Solomon’s Soldiers |
| Grand Final | Puttanesca Chiefs |
Top 5 Scorers 2021
| Defenestrators | Tot. | Avg. |
| Tom Mitchell HW | 2543 | 115.6 |
| Sam Walsh CA | 2397 | 109 |
| Max Gawn ME | 2389 | 108.6 |
| Josh Kelly GWS | 2178 | 103.7 |
| Jack Ziebell NM | 2102 | 100.1 |
All-Australians
2021 Pre-Season Draft
| Pick | Player | Team | Games | Avg | Still on List? |
| 9 | E. Hollands GC – C,F | Defenestrators | 0 | 0 | Y |
| 19 | I. Quaynor CW – B | Defenestrators | 9 | 71.8 | Y |
| 24 | I. Smith GE – C,F | Defenestrators | 19 | 93.3 | Y |
| 29 | D. Robertson BL – C,F | Defenestrators | 9 | 58.9 | Y |
| 39 | S. Higgins GE – C | Defenestrators | 10 | 91.2 | Y |
| 49 | H. Chapman FR – B | Defenestrators | 0 | 0 | N |
| 58 | J. Sinclair SK – C | Defenestrators | 13 | 82.6 | Y |
| 59 | N. Hind ES – F | Defenestrators | 18 | 87.8 | Y |
| 79 | B. Scott NM – C,F | Defenestrators | 4 | 50.5 | Y |
| 89 | J. Elliott CW – C,F | Defenestrators | 4 | 65 | Y |
| 109 | C. Zurhaar NM – F | Defenestrators | 5 | 77 | N |
| 130 | C. Ward GWS – C | Defenestrators | 18 | 85.8 | Y |
| 139 | D. Mundy FR – C | Defenestrators | 19 | 86.4 | Y |
| 149 | J. Rotham WC – B | Defenestrators | 14 | 68.1 | Y |
| 159 | C. Jiath HW – B | Defenestrators | 10 | 69 | N |
| 169 | J. Darling WC – F | Defenestrators | 8 | 77.6 | N |
| 179 | C. Lazzaro NM – C | Defenestrators | 0 | 0 | N |
| 189 | T. Lynch RI – F | Defenestrators | 1 | 58 | N |
| 199 | M. Redman ES – B | Defenestrators | 6 | 60.7 | N |
The Defenestrators didn’t wind up paying a price for selecting someone who couldn’t contribute to the premiership push with their first selection. They more than made up for it with six selections who all featured in more than ten games and averaged 80 or more.
Nearly every selection was useful in one way or another, which is exactly the result you’re looking for when neck deep in the premiership race. The run in the backhalf of the draft – Ward, Mundy, Rotham, Jiath and Darling – phwoar. Another contender for best draft of 2021.
Most inspired selection: Nick Hind – pick 59
Hind was nothing short of outstanding in season 2021. One of the pre-season hype darlings more than delivered, playing 18 times for the champions and averaging just shy of 88. Gets the nod over Mundy and Ward due to his very useful B/F status.
Beyond the surface level stats, what stands out in the memory is his penchant for finishing games strongly. A big contributor in a couple of key wins – including a ton in the Grand Final.
Trades
| Date | Team 1 | Received | Team 2 | Received |
| 25 July 2021 | Defenestrators | Tom Hawkins | Taxmanian Devils | Changkuoth Jiath |
| 20 February 2021 | Defenestrators | Daniel Rich | Puttanesca Chiefs | Defenestrators Round 12 pick |
| 13 February 2021 | Defenestrators | Te Puke Pukekos Round 3 pick | Te Puke Pukekos | Braydon Preuss Defenestrators Rd 13 Pick |
| 9 February 2021 | Solomon’s Soldiers | Defenestrators Rd 7 pick Defenestrators Rd 10 pick | Defenestrators | Solomon’s Soldiers Rd 6 pick Puttanesca Chiefs Rd 13 pick |
Most of the Defenestrators’ work was done in the pre-season, and what work it was. Trading in eventual All-Australian Defender Daniel Rich for a round 12 pick was inspired work (fun fact: that round 12 pick ended up being used on Sydney ruck Callum Sinclair. He averaged 110 in season 2021, but only played the one game).
When you have Max Gawn in the ruck, you can afford to offload ruckman not named Max Gawn to others. But trading Preuss to Te Puke Pukekos about 30 seconds before he suffered a long term injury was particularly fortuitous.
List at end of season
| Defenestrators | Tot. | Avg. | Last 5 Avg |
| Tom Mitchell HW | 2543 | 115.6 | 124 |
| Sam Walsh CA | 2397 | 109 | 100.6 |
| Max Gawn ME | 2389 | 108.6 | 109.6 |
| Josh Kelly GWS | 2178 | 103.7 | 110.8 |
| Jack Ziebell NM | 2102 | 100.1 | 81.8 |
| Ben Cunnington NM | 1488 | 99.2 | 81 |
| Daniel Rich BL | 2158 | 98.1 | 105.4 |
| Isaac Smith GE | 1954 | 93 | 101.5 |
| David Mundy FR | 1958 | 89 | 79.6 |
| Rory Sloane AD | 1540 | 85.6 | 84.6 |
| Harry Perryman GWS | 1367 | 85.4 | 83 |
| Nick Hind ES | 1859 | 84.5 | 78.4 |
| Callan Ward GWS | 1843 | 83.8 | 81 |
| Jack Bowes GC | 1531 | 80.6 | 58.5 |
| Jake Stringer ES | 1449 | 80.5 | 82.8 |
| Jack Scrimshaw HW | 1595 | 79.8 | 89.4 |
| Jack Sinclair SK | 1666 | 79.3 | 85.3 |
| Shaun Higgins GE | 1183 | 78.9 | 91.3 |
| Brandan Parfitt GE | 1609 | 76.6 | 57.2 |
| Jonathon Ceglar HW | 917 | 76.4 | 88 |
| Tom Hawkins GE | 1664 | 75.6 | 73 |
| Jamie Elliott CW | 961 | 73.9 | 79.6 |
| Kieran Strachan AD | 147 | 73.5 | 73.5 |
| Ryan Burton PA | 1615 | 73.4 | 88.8 |
| Josh Rotham WC | 1360 | 71.6 | 60.7 |
| Tom Lynch AD | 857 | 71.4 | 83 |
| Jeremy Sharp GC | 639 | 71 | 62.8 |
| Isaac Quaynor CW | 1397 | 69.9 | 60.7 |
| Jack Higgins SK | 1312 | 69.1 | 75.8 |
| Alex Davies GC | 63 | 63 | 63 |
| Deven Robertson BL | 929 | 61.9 | 49 |
| Mark O’Connor GE | 792 | 60.9 | 60.3 |
| Stephen Coniglio GWS | 295 | 59 | 28 |
| Tim O’Brien HW | 1042 | 57.9 | 75.4 |
| Sam Draper ES | 687 | 57.3 | 59 |
| Bailey Scott NM | 866 | 54.1 | 46 |
| Jack Bytel SK | 639 | 49.2 | 51 |
| James Sicily HW | – | – | – |
| Matt Crouch AD | – | – | – |
| Elijah Hollands GC | – | – | – |
Player to watch in 2022
Stephen Coniglio
The good news is the Defenestrators have now shown they don’t need a fit-and-firing Coniglio to win the ultimate prize. He’s moved into luxury territory.
The prime mover has now delivered two consecutive seasons of bog average scores. After four 100+ avg seasons, Coniglio has averaged 78 and an ugly 59 in the COVID years.
Can he recapture his previous form? The premiers will be adding Sicily and Matt Crouch to their title defence. An inspired Coniglio as well would surely put them in pole position.
2021 in Review
They won the flag. There isn’t much more to say.
After being top the ladder for the overwhelming majority of the season the Defenestrators tried to Defenestrate themselves at the tail end of the home & away season, slipping out of the double chance and into third place.
But they flipped the script this year. Having lost the automatic spot in the Preliminary Finals, the team went incendiary. They won each of their finals by more than 100 points. Their lowest on field score in the Grand Final was a 70.
Two of their keepers coming into the year didn’t play a single game. They should both suit up in 2022.
Trying to identify hurdles to a third straight grand final appearance is tricky. There is surely no way Ziebell repeats his scoring levels again, right? His second half of the year was a step down from his first. Cunnington has a serious health scare, Stringer had a year out of the box. David Mundy is old.
But really the main threat is the evenness of the competition. There are three power teams in the league at the moment. The Defenestrators entered the finals behind the other two, but conquered them when it mattered. Can they do it again?
Season Grade: A+