EDFL: East Sunbury’s Kamen Ogilvie claims Division 2 league best and fairest

East Sunbury’s Kamen Ogilvie has been recognised as the pre-eminent player of 2018 in EDFL Division 2.

Kamen Ogilvie was a standout for East Sunbury this season and its best in an agonising grand final defeat.

On Thursday night, he was recognised as the competition’s pre-eminent player of 2018 when he claimed the Essendon District Football League Division 2 best and fairest.

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The 26-year-old returned to the Thunder this year after a stint at Hepburn and the accolade capped an extraordinary season for the club.

Former coach Steve Grey resigned in June despite the fact East Sunbury was sitting pretty on top of the ladder with a 7-2 record.

Experienced mentor Glenn Hopkins was installed as his replacement a few weeks later and steered the Thunder to the decider, which it lost to Roxburgh Park by six points, after its season was on the brink of unravelling.

East Sunbury star Kamen Ogilvie racks up another stat. Picture: Jamie Morey

“The development that we’ve had from our younger team has just made our older players even better,” Ogilvie said.

“From when ‘Hoppa’ took over, the way everyone has just developed and grown as footballers has just been immense.”

Ogilvie described improvement from the likes of Tom Cree, Will Wright and Lachlan Brne in the second half of the campaign as “phenomenal”.

While Ogilvie was humbled by the award, he was keener to talk up his club after polling 24 votes to win by three from Moonee Valley’s Cory McGrath.

He spent the opening rounds of the season in defence before a move to the midfield allowed him to use his speed to cut up opposition sides.

The fact Ogilvie polled in 11 games underlined his consistency, with 16 of his votes coming in the first half of the season.

“Individual awards are great, but that’s not what we play the game for,” Ogilvie said.

“We were six points short of getting what I wanted to get out of this year.

“I’m still humbled by the fact I was chosen by the umpires as the best and fairest, but that’s not what I came back home for.”

Ogilvie paid tribute to Hopkins and Grey for their contributions.

“I’ve never heard of a club being 7-2 and a coach leaving on those types of terms,” he said.

“But in the end it kind of worked out in our benefit … I don’t think we would have finished the way we finished under Steve Grey. The way ‘Hoppa’ came in and actually taught our younger players how to play footy is what actually developed us as a club.

“Steve was great for the club. He developed people who had never played football before from a 0-18 season (in 2013) to eventually getting to four wins, seven wins and 10 wins.”

Roxburgh Park’s Harley Short finished third on 15 votes, while Lucas Shaw (East Sunbury), Braden Padmore (Moonee Valley) and Matthew Gray (Northern Saints) all polled 11.

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