Brett Bewley wins BFNL Henderson Medal ahead of Darley teammate Luther Baker

Darley captain Brett Bewley has been crowned the Ballarat league’s best-and-fairest for the second year in a row in a Devils one-two with teammate Luther Baker.

Darley pair Luther Baker and Brett Bewley.

Brett Bewley has been crowned the Ballarat league’s best player and now he wants Darley to be the competition’s best team.

The Devils captain and star midfielder claimed back-to-back Henderson Medals on Monday night with teammate Luther Baker making it a club quinella.

Bewley polled 27 votes to make it two from two since returning to his junior club, finishing ahead of Baker on 24 and North Ballarat gun Riley Polkinghorne on 19.

He averaged a league-high 38 disposals and kicked 33 goals in a superb all-round season.

“I thought I had a reasonably consistent season,” Bewley said.

“In terms of where we were as a team, compared to last year, I rated the year a bit better but around different area.

“I think my leadership has grown this year, which has been a positive, it’s something I set out to improve.

“It was a solid year but plenty still to work on.

“I knew I had a patch in the middle of the year when I was carrying an injury and it took me a couple of weeks to get back into it but I knew I had a consistent year.”

Bewley was rapt to see his great mate, Baker, getting the love from the umpires.

“It was really good to see him finally get some recognition externally,” he said.

“We obviously rate him really highly inside the four walls of the club.

“I’m really good mates with him, it’s good recognition for all the hard work he puts in.”

Now the focus turns to Saturday and a grand final against North Ballarat.

Brett Bewley in action for Darley. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Darley claimed a 61-point victory in the major semi-final a fortnight ago to earn direct passage to the decider.

After a remarkable 48-disposal, 229-ranking point performance in the qualifying final win over Melton, Bewley backed it up with another 37 touches, two goals and 161 ranking points.

The Devils will look to salute for the first time since 2017.

“We’ve got multiple netball sides competing and to be competing in the senior men’s is a good achievement thus far and we’re hoping to bring back some silverware on Saturday night,” Bewley said.

“We’ve had the week off, so it was a good opportunity to freshen up.

“We had a fair stretch of games from our last bye mid-season, so the boys used it to recoup and regenerate.

“We’re still a relatively young group, probably 60 to 70 per cent of our list is still 23 or under, so it’s an exciting time.

“It’s just about taming the excitement of the young boys but they’ve been really good, they know there’s still a job to do.”

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Darley’s outstanding season also saw the club awarded the Merv and Mary Howard club championship.

Meanwhile, Sunbury’s Simona DiFillipo won the Sally McLean Medal as the A-Grade netball league best-and-fairest.

The Lions mid-courter polled 21 votes to finish on top ahead of Darley duo Shannon Blackman and Matilda Elliott and North Ballarat’s Brydi Hutchinson.

Devils goaler Rebecca Hicks was the leading scorer with an incredible 665 goals.