Jasmine Garner overlooked by umpires in AFLW best and fairest award despite dominant season
Despite scooping all the awards this year, North Melbourne star Jasmine Garner was shockingly overlooked in the league best and fairest. Coach Scott Gowans weighs in.
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Being stunningly overlooked in the AFLW best and fairest won’t faze North Melbourne star Jasmine Garner, coach Scott Gowans says.
Garner was the hot favourite to win the award after scooping every other individual accolade this season, including the AFLCA Champion Player of the Year and AFLPA MVP.
But she was surprisingly overlooked by the umpires, polling just four votes and failing to finish inside the top 15.
“I think her season was better than four votes, clearly,” Gowans told the Herald Sun.
“I look at it from a coaching perspective and say we actually did OK because (Emma) Kearney did so well and (Jenna) Bruton did so well. Combine them altogether and I think they were going to take votes off each other anyway but what’s happened is it’s been exasperated because it was a six-game season …”
Gowans spoke to Garner, 25, on Tuesday night after Blue Madison Prespakis was crowned the winner what he said was a “really deserving winner”.
“She’s 100 per cent fine. She just laughed it off,” he said. “She’s really satisfied with her year.
“I don’t think she is (disappointed). It’s just not in her nature.
“Of all the footballers I’ve coached, she’s probably the most focused on team success that I’ve ever met … she lives and breathes it.
“She wouldn’t have cared less.”
Voting raised eyebrows when Garner failed to poll against Geelong when she had 18 disposals and kicked three goals and GWS (20 disposals and two goals) despite receiving perfect 10s from the coaches in both games.
“We had a couple of players that might have got less possessions and had less impact but they played four quarters (against Geelong), so they’d be in the umpires’ view more than what a really good quarter of footy would be,” Gowans said.
“So I can sort of see it. I don’t like it, but I can sort of see it.
“That (GWS game) was a game where she played four good quarters. So I don’t know about that one, that was probably an anomaly. She probably deserved a vote there.”
AFLW umpires vote after every game and despite the boilover, Gowans doesn’t want to see the voting responsibility taken off them.
“I’d hate to see the award not done (by the umpires),” he said.
“It’s part of the tradition of the game at any level, so I’d hate to see any changes because of it. It’s just one of those things.”
NO VOTES? UMPS’ BAFFLING SNUB FOR AFLW MVP
The Brownlow Medal has had its fair share of bizarre calls and now the AFLW has its own version.
Jasmine Garner’s 2020 season for North Melbourne was so dominant she swept all the individual awards — the AFLCA Champion Player of the year, the AFLPA MVP, the Kangaroos best and fairest and she was named in the All-Australian team — yet somehow she couldn’t crack the top 10 in Tuesday night’s W Awards.
In fact, she didn’t even make the top 15. Garner finished equal seventeenth, polling just four votes for the season.
That’s taking nothing away from Maddy Prespakis, who had an outstanding season and was a deserving winner. To win the league’s best and fairest award at 19 – a year after claiming the Rising Star – is an incredible achievement and great recognition for a player who has taken the competition by storm.
But how can Garner not even get close? It doesn’t sit right.
The worry for the 25-year-old, who transformed from a dominant forward to goal kicking midfielder this year, was always going to be star teammates Emma Kearney, Jenna Bruton and Ash Riddell taking votes off her.
The fab four at Arden St each had standout seasons, with Kearney and Riddell also named All-Australian.
As it turned out, Kearney nearly claimed her second league best and fairest, placing third on 11 votes behind Prespakis (15 votes) and runner-up Kiara Bowers (12). Bruton finished equal fourth with 10 votes.
It was great recognition and reward for both Kearney and Bruton — let’s not take anything away from them, either. Kearney had a sensational season, with coach Scott Gowans declaring she was in “career-best form”.
But how can a player who had 18 disposals and kicked three goals against Geelong not receive a single vote for that performance?
Garner also did not receive a vote for her 20-disposal and two-goal performance against GWS in Round 2, with Bruton (three), Kearney (two) and Giant Alyce Parker (one) the vote getters.
Garner also received just one vote in the crushing win over Adelaide when she had 24 disposals and kicked two goals.
The Kangaroo polled votes in just two games — three votes against Gold Coast (30 disposals) and one against the Crows.
From her six home-and-away matches this year, Garner received four perfect 10s from the coaches in the AFLCA Champion Player of the Year award — against GWS (Round 2), Gold Coast (Round 4), Adelaide (Round 5) and Geelong (Round 6).
She won that award by one vote over Collingwood’s Jaimee Lambert, who was also surprisingly overlooked by the umpires, finishing equal seventh on seven votes.
It’s not to say Garner should have been crowned the league’s best and fairest in a landslide — make no mistake Prespakis deserves the award — but the fact she didn’t even get close means something has gone horribly wrong.
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