Tom Phillips and Paul Seedsman never crossed paths at the Holden Centre.

As a matter of fact, the Caulfield Grammar old boys only missed each other as a couple of weeks.

Seedsman left the Magpies in the off-season of 2015 via a complicated four-team trade. A month later, Collingwood’s recruiting team drafted Phillips with the 58th pick in the 2015 National Draft.

Did they think Phillips would be a direct replacement for Seedsman? Or have they found a happy coincidence in the hard-running wingman?

Either way, the pair could potentially be now vying for the same spot on the wing in the unofficial mid-year All Australian team.

At least Scott Pendlebury thinks so.

“In the wing battle there’s Flipper (Phillips), Seeds and (Andrew) Gaff at the moment. They’ll be the three,” the Collingwood captain said on podcast ‘Jock and Journo’.

“And Flip is probably the surprise packet in that, but he’s actually rated the highest out of the lot.”

iTUNES: Hear more from the captain fortnightly on the Jock and Journo podcast.

This may have come as a surprise to many pundits, at least until Phillips won the Rose-Sutton Medal for best afield against the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.

The 22-year-old had 36 disposals and kicked a goal in arguably the most productive game of his short career.

Pendlebury was glowing in his praise, and believes Phillips can only get better.

“It looks like the game slows down for him,” Pendlebury said.

“He’ll be in defence doing a spoil, and the next minute he’s kicking it back inside 50. He just doesn’t stop running.

“You can’t go with him. He just keeps getting on the end of the footy.”

Phillips’ name was one of a few Collingwood players Pendlebury and co-host Jay Clark raised on the latest ‘Jock and Journo’ podcast. To hear the others, use the module below to hear the full episode.

Other topics include:

- The worst beard in footy (1:00),
- Why Roaming Brian is banned (2:20),
- Re-living Rat Pack antics (4:15),
- Left-field All Australians (6:45),
- Paul Seedsman or Tom Phillips? (11:00),
- The emergence of our defence (13:30),
- The ‘secret weapon’ among our coaching ranks (20:55),
- Pendles on ‘unsettling’ 2017 (25:45),
- Delegating baby duties (33:00),
- Tom Langdon takes his moment (34:45) and more.



Paul Seedsman reunites with former teammates after Collingwood's round four victory over Adelaide. Image: AFL Photos.