Tunbridge & Maddy Collier Medal Night Winners
Sunday night saw 220 guests attend the annual Tunbridge and Maddy Collier Medal Night at The Pavilion in Kiama to crown this years individual winners.
Jacob Hennessy of the Figtree Kangaroos and Sophie Phillips from Bomaderry Tigers won the two big awards of the night in the Tunbridge Medal and Maddy Collier Medal respectively.
Jacob Hennessy’s win in the Tunbridge Medal was the first ever by a Figtree Kangaroos player. Jacob finished the count on nineteen votes to finish three votes in front of Jack Boxsell from the Bomaderry Tigers (last years Tom Smith Medallist). Jacob’s win was made all the more impressive after missing a number of rounds in the middle of the season due to an overseas holiday.
Pictured: Jacob Hennessy with Geoff Tunbridge
The Maddy Collier Medal count was a thriller with Sophie polling 13 out of a possible 15 votes in her final five games to claim back-to-back Best & Fairest awards and pip team mate Bridgett Kellett by a solitary vote! Sophie won the inaugural Maddy Collier Medal last year in a landslide but this year was much tighter, partly thanks to Sophie missing a number of games whilst representing NSW/ACT in the Under 18 Nationals.
Pictured: Sophie Phillips with Carole Collier
The Tom Smith Medal (Men’s Division One) was won by Nowra Albatross Viking’s Marco Basaglia while the Men’s Division Two Medal was taken out by Matthew Thompson of the Ulladulla Dockers. The newest medal to be awarded, the Women’s Division One medal, was won by Bay and Basin Bombers teenager (and school mate of Sophie Phillips) Olivia Delahenty who was playing her first season of football and again highlights the depth of young talent in the region.
The prestigious Volunteer of the Year award was won by Kimberley Peat of the Ulladulla Dockers for her significant contribution to her club and the league across 2019.
2019 saw two new awards in the form of the Men’s and Women’s Rising Stars. The Men’s award was appropriately named the ‘Darren Williams’ Men’s Rising Star in honour of league legend Darren Williams of the Kiama Power who suddenly passed away earlier this year. The inaugural winner of this prestigious award was Siwa Harvey-Aziz of the Bomaderry Tigers while the Women’s Rising Star award went to Kiama Power’s Kelsey Wishart after an outstanding debut season.
The Senior Coach of the Year award appropriately went to Geoff Gibbs from Bomaderry Tigers who has led the Bomaderry Tigers to the 2018 Premiership, to this years Grand Final and was the inaugural AFL South Coast Women’s Coach (alongside Ben Hydnes).
AFL South Coast also announced the Men’s and (for the first time) a Women’s Team of the Year with full teams viewable through the AFL South Coast Facebook page.
Congratulations to all the winners on the night and thanks to all for their attendance at what has become a real highlight event on the AFL South Coast calendar each year.
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