Mathieson Medal: St Mary’s Harry Benson wins second award in bizarre circumstances
There’s little doubt Harry Benson is the best player in the GFL, but it was an unlikely-to-be-repeated instance, and a bizarre final vote, that allowed him to claim the Mathieson Medal. PHOTOS
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
St Mary’s star Harry Benson has created history at a dramatic Mathieson Medal count, winning his second consecutive honour despite only playing 13 games.
The star Saint was almost perfect to start the season, polling 22 of a possible 24 votes in the opening eight weeks of the season before suffering a broken jaw in round 11 and was ruled out of football until round 18.
At the end of round 18, Leopold captain Marcus Thompson and North Shore co-coach were tied on 23 votes and set to receive the award together, but Benson polled three votes in the rescheduled round 16 clash against St Joseph’s — which his side lost — to finish on 25 votes.
To add to the controversy, the Saint did not finish on top of the count, instead the ineligible Tigers co-coach Darcy Lang finishing with 26 votes but unable to receive the award after a suspension earlier in the year.
“You can do as much fitness stuff as you want, match fitness is different and I was blowing up in that first five minutes playing forward,” he said after the win against Grovedale.
Benson started forward in his return game, collecting 19 disposals and 10 tackles as he built into the match, and said after the game he was “blowing up” after five minutes of competitive football.
“Once I found my groove in the midfield and worked into the game it started to work well.”
After the round 18 clash with Grovedale, St Mary’s co-coach Travis Robertson said the club wanted to move round 16 to round 19 to give Benson a chance to play two games before finals.
“That was always the plan for us,” he said after the win in round 18.
“We wanted to give Harry a chance to have a couple of games under his belt before we hit finals, he’s done a lot of conditioning and non-contact work at training but match fitness is different.
“Having a couple of run arounds before we hit a different intensity again in finals is really important for us.”
The moved fixture ended up proving pivotal in his attempt to claim the famous medal, polling three votes for 33 disposals, eight tackles and a goal in the two-point loss to St Joseph’s.
Lang had polled 11 votes in the opening five weeks of the season, before he failed to overturn a one-match suspension at the tribunal for a careless strike against St Albans in round 6.
Thompson was the overwhelming favourite going into the night, having received the nod to win the award from all-but three GFL coaches, but instead tied for second with Dixon on 23 votes.
Giants midfielder Baxter Mensch enjoyed a stellar second half to the season and was rewarded with 21 votes, enough to earn a fifth placed finish in total votes polled.
Leaderboard
26 – Darcy Lang* (Colac)
25 – Harry Benson (St Mary’s)
23 – Marcus Thompson (Leopold), Nick Dixon (North Shore)
21 – Baxter Mensch (Geelong West)
19 – Lachie Patten (Bell Park)
15 – Jack Blood (St Mary’s), Matthew McMahon* (Newtown & Chilwell), Tylar Watts (Geelong West)
14 – Brody Mahoney (Colac), Jai Thompson (Leopold), James Gow (St Joseph’s)
Star Swan shooter wins first best and fairest award
South Barwon goal shooter Ellen Doyle has capped an outstanding individual season with a league best and fairest award at the Mathieson Medal count on Monday night.
The Swan polled 22 votes on the way to her first league best and fairest honour, pipping St Joseph’s Emma Buwalda by two votes.
Doyle polled maximum votes in five games this season and was a dominant threat in goals, scoring 685 goals across 15 home-and-away season matches to lead the league.
Doyle crossed the threshold of 50 goals six times this season, including four games of 60 goals or more.
The Swan has also spent time playing for the Geelong Cougars in division one this season, including in the grand final loss against the Hawks.
Doyle had the award wrapped up with her final three-vote performance of the season in round 18, with the four-vote buffer over Buwalda too much to overcome with one round remaining.
Buwalda polled two votes in the last game of the season against St Mary’s to finish two votes behind on 20, while her teammate Elli Leydin polled 17 votes for the season to finish in third place.
St Joseph’s fell out of a top five spot in the last game of the season, with a draw against St Mary’s not enough to edge out Geelong West for a finals berth.
South Barwon will continue its finals campaign with Doyle leading the charge after a qualifying final loss to Colac, with Tigers co-coach Jesse Lang happy with how her side contained Doyle.
“She’s such a fantastic player, every week she’s so dangerous around goal and South Barwon has such a good combination in goals,” she said.
“We were very happy to be able to keep them to just over 50 goals in essentially five quarters of netball, but Ellen is a player that could explode any week with her scoring.”
Colac goal keeper Brooke Allan, who has kept Doyle to three of her four lowest scores this season, finished equal fourth in the count, tied on 16 votes with Newtown & Chilwell’s Danielle Mather.
Eagles shooter Uneeq Palavi and St Albans goal attack Madelyn Gray finished tied on 14 votes each in sixth spot on the count.
St Joseph’s Laura Bell won the B Grade best and fairest by two votes after polling 21 for the season, while Geelong West’s Holly Fenton polled an incredible 33 votes to storm away with the C Grade award, winning by 12 votes.
Newtown & Chilwell’s Cassidy Moore and South Barwon’s Nneka Ononye tied the D Grade count on 20 votes each, while Eagles’ Myah Linton polled 21 votes to win the E Grade count.
More Coverage
Originally published as Mathieson Medal: St Mary’s Harry Benson wins second award in bizarre circumstances
BFNL wrap: Hawks blow their chances, Heads hold off Grubbers
The Ammos, without two of its key goalkickers have done enough to down the Hawks, aided by a hard nut midfielder after a decade on the sidelines with ongoing knee issues.
Charlemont mansion secured, demolition talks underway
Following months of inaction at the Charlemont ‘spooky’ house, temporary fencing has been installed and plans for its demolition are in place.