CLASH of the titans.
When Tom De Koning lines up against younger brother Sam this weekend, it will once again see family bragging rights on the line.
With father Terry and mother Jackie in the stands watching two of their children fight for the four points, Tom is hoping the battle comes out in favour of the Blues.
In the previous two games with the pair playing against each other, the duo have split the points, with Tom's Carlton prevailing in Round 2 last year after Sam's Geelong triumphed in Round 18, 2022.
“I’m looking forward to it, I can’t wait,” De Koning said.
“Hopefully we get to line up against each other. I got into him a bit last year, so we’ll see what happens this year.”
With the Round 7 clash also marking Sam’s 50th game, Tom is sure that the MCG stands will be full of family and friends, making the prospect even more exciting.
Tom’s time up forward has increased in the last fortnight, heading into the Cats clash fresh from a career-best three goals.
It makes it even more likely that he'll be taking on his key defender brother at some stage throughout the game. And growing up as two of 10 siblings, it's a prospect they're both hungry for.
“We’re very competitive,” he admitted.
"We had to fight for ourselves. Hopefully we get a few good contests against each other.”
As for their parents and family, Tom expects there to be two quite different approaches to the game from his parents, with loyalties split down the middle.
“Mum is probably the most excited person in the crowd and Dad will go walk around the side and sit by himself,” he said.
“My family is kind of split. The nephews keep changing, a lot of my brothers love Carlton but they have a soft spot for both, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
Not letting footy get in the way of brotherhood, Tom will still see Sam for their weekly surf in Torquay in the lead-up to Saturday's clash.
With Carlton’s forward line playing one of their most complete games last week, Tom said the responsibility was to back that up when they taking on the top-of-the-table, undefeated Geelong.
“I’m going for a surf with Sammy and a few of the Carlton boys, so we’ll battle it out in the water before the weekend,” he said.
“I felt like [the GWS game] was our most consistent performance as a connected team. I feel like we really dominated in the midfield, got the ball going forward and I feel like our forward line functioned the best it has all year.
“I’ll try and kick six [this week] and re-assess at half time . . . no, only joking!"
