Name the AFLW best and fairest medal after Phillips, says inaugural Crows AFLW premiership coach
Inaugural Adelaide AFLW premiership coach Bec Goddard has called on the league to name its best and fairest medal after dual winner Erin Phillips.
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Inaugural Adelaide AFLW premiership coach Bec Goddard has called on the league to name its best and fairest medal after dual winner Erin Phillips.
Crows superstar Phillips on Tuesday night became the first multiple winner of the medal, which after three years of competition doesn’t carry a name, polling a remarkable 19 out of a possible 21 votes.
The 33-year-old’s runaway win — she was eight clear of nearest rival, Fremantle’s Dana Hooker — followed an amazing AFLW season where she also was named MVP, All-Australian captain and won the best-afield medal in Adelaide’s 45-point grand final demolition of Carlton.
She won the same awards in the inaugural AFLW season in 2017.
“Erin deserves to have the best and fairest medal named after her,’’ Goddard, who coached Phillips at the Crows in 2017 and 2018, told The Advertiser.
“She’s already achieved a lot in football but, for me, it’s not just about her football. She typifies everything that it means to be a great athlete and has set a benchmark for an Australian female in sport.
“You look at some of the greats, Lauren Jackson is one I can think of in just the one sport (basketball), but Erin is elite at two sports and has let nothing stop her.
“She sets the tone, the winning instinct, with everything she does and certainly taught me how to win.
“With what she has achieved in the Australian sporting environment and around the world with her basketball (dual WNBA champion and Olympic Games silver medallist), she is worthy of having a medal named after her.
“I know the sentiment of Victorians is to wait longer before naming the medal but I don’t care what anyone says, there will never be another Erin Phillips.
“What she has achieved in the infancy of the AFLW won’t be matched.’’
‘I would like to pay tribute to the person the award is named after... myself’ @erinphillips131 you âï¸ #nameit #phillips https://t.co/WUlFRsM8Bm
— Patrick Dangerfield (@dangerfield35) April 2, 2019
Brownlow Medallist Patrick Dangerfield also wants the medal named after Phillips, tweeting: “I would like to pay tribute to the person the award is named after … myself’ @erinphillips131 you ..#nameit #phillips
The AFL on Wednesday said it wouldn’t name the women’s best and fairest medal after Phillips, whose football future is uncertain after she ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in the grand final, while she was an active player.
It said it wanted the three-season AFLW competition to “breathe’’ and “evolve’’ for longer before naming any of its medals, including Rising Star and leading goalkicker, after former players or officials.
The AFL’s head of women’s football Nicole Livingstone instead said it would be “pretty cool’’ to name a stand at Adelaide Oval after Phillips.;
“I stood at Adelaide Oval (on Sunday) and I actually looked at the naming on the stands, and there are two spaces that are left there, that I think would be perfect to have an Erin Phillips stand,” Livingstone said.
“I see plenty of male athlete names up there and legends of Australian football. We have a legend of Australian football right in front of us.
“She’s an Adelaide girl and she personifies everything about women’s sport and Australian football, so I think it’d be pretty cool to have a stand named after Erin Phillips.”
Phillips described talk of the medal being named in her honour as “quite strange’’.
“It makes you feel a little bit old,’’ she said.
“But it’s special to be included in those conversations. Just to be even spoken (about) in that category because there’s so many deserving past players you could name it after.
“It would be pretty incredible if it was called The Phillips Medal and I think my dad (Greg) would probably take all the credit.’’
Dual Crows AFL premiership captain Mark Bickley urged caution in making a decision on who the medal should be named after following just three years of the AFLW.
“It’s a bit too early to make that call,’’ he said.
“What happens if they named it after Erin now and someone like Emma Kearney (last year’s winner) goes on to win four best and fairests.
“I get that Erin is head and shoulders above everyone else at the moment but let's just wait and see how it all unfolds over the next few years.’’
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