Brett Bewley wins the Ballarat Football League Henderson Medal

Brett Bewley credits his return to Darley for reigniting his passion for the game as he is crowned the Ballarat league’s best-and-fairest. See all the winners here.

Brett Bewley in action for Darley. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Brett Bewley says pulling on the Darley jumped reignited his passion for the game this season.

The former Fremantle midfielder dominated the Ballarat Football League in his return to his junior club and was rewarded with the Henderson Medal on Monday night.

Bewley polled votes in all but three games and earned best-on-ground honours five times to finish with 29 votes.

The Devils captain ended the night 13 votes clear at the top of the leaderboard with Jordan Johnston (East Point), Lachie George (Redan) and Jack Walker (Melton) tying for second on 16 votes.

Having been delisted by the Dockers, Bewley returned to Darley Park to rediscover his love for the game.

“I had a really enjoyable year, playing with a lot of mates I grew up with, my brother and playing under Dan. It was good to be back,” he said.

“My main goal was to help the club get back on track from a dire year in 2021.

“My main (personal) objective was getting that passion back for the game that I had when I was a kid and pulling the Darley jumper on again reignited a lot of those feelings growing up.

“I tried to play my footy with the mindset of having fun.”

Bewley made an instant impact, polling three votes in the stunning Round 1 upset win over Sebastopol, and barely made a mistake all season.

He racked up 33 disposals, 10 clearances and two goals against the Burras and averaged a league-leading 36 touches for the season.

Bewley is the fourth Darley player to win the Henderson Medal and the first since Steven Kennedy in 2015.

Teammate and fellow recruit Nick Rodda shared the Tony Lockett Medal with Melton’s Ryan Carter as both finished the home-and-away season on 56 goals.

Carter booted 10 goals in the Round 18 win over Lake Wendoree to snatch a slice of the medal.

After a winless season in 2021, Darley made an immediate return to finals with Bewley and Rodda on board as well as new coach Dan Jordan.

The Devils won an elimination final against reigning premier East Point before falling agonisingly short of a memorable comeback win against Ballarat in the minor semi-final.

Trailed by 43 points at half-time, Darley stormed home but went down by a point.

Bewley was incredibly proud of his club’s resurgence this season and the development of the young players.

“Our back half of the year was really solid, we always knew our second half would be better than the first because of the limited playing time together and getting to know Dan’s system,” he said.

“As an outsider looking in it might have been a bit of a surprise but we knew the path we were on.

“We knew if we kept working on our goals we’d reap some rewards and to play finals and win a final is a really big tick for our young group.

“When you’re 40 points down at half-time (in the semi-final) you’re always going to be up against it but we did well to get back to the position we were in.

“I’m really excited with a lot of the boys we’ve got at the club.

“I can’t remember the number of boys we debuted but there would have been at least half-a-dozen and there’s still boys developing who missed two years of footy with COVID.

“We took a lot of steps and a lot of the boys stepped up and hopefully they can continue to develop.”

Meanwhile, there was history in the Sally McLean Medal.

Soli Ropati became the first Melton South player to win the A-Grade netball league best-and-fairest in a thrilling count.

BFL: CARMODY ENDS TENURE ON HIGH DESPITE LOSS

LEADER: GET YOUR BALLARAT FOOTY NEWS HERE

CHFL: LIFE-LONG DREAM FULFILLED WITH GORDON FLAG

Despite playing only 10 games, the Panthers centre and captain polled 21 votes, earning six best-on-court honours, to pip Darley pair Rebecca Hicks (17 votes) and Grace Markovic (16).

In the night’s other awards, Ballarat coach Joe Carmody was awarded the Mick Malthouse Medal as coach of the year, while Swans’ youngster Riley Constable was named the Rookie of the Year.

Minor premier Melton had five players named in the Team of the Year – Liam Carter, Ryan Carter, Jordyn Cotter, Jack Walker and Braedan Kight.

Redan co-coaches Ruby Parry and Hayley Munro were honoured with the netball Coach of the Year award.

FOOTBALL TEAM OF THE YEAR

B: Jake Owen (BM), Ryan Hobbs (NB), Nick Stuhldreier (BM)

HB: Tony Lockyer (Seb), Tyson Lever (Sun), Jordyn Cotter (Mel)

C: Jack Riding (NB), Matthew Johnston (EP), Daniel Toman (Sun)

HF: Liam Carter (Mel), Ryan Carter (Mel), Braedan Kight (Mel)

F: Andrew Hooper (Ball), Nick Rodda (Dar), Jordan Johnston (EP)

Foll: Daniel Burton (BM), Brett Bewley (Dar), Jack Walker (Mel)

I/C: Sam James (Ball), Lachie George (Red), James Keeble (Seb), Cam McCallum (NB)

NETBALL TEAM OF THE YEAR

GK: Georgette Paatsch (NB)

GD: Melissa Olomanu (MS)

WD: Cassandra Peace (Red)

C: Soli Ropati (MS)

WA: Stacey Matthews (NB)

GA: Ruby Parry (Red)

GS: Adut Manyiel (Seb)

I/C: Maddy Selmon (NB), Kara Hart (LW), Gina McCartin (NB), Rosie Todd (LW), Poppy Douglass (NB)