North Melbourne star Jasmine Garner named AFLPA AFLW Most Valuable Player in ‘virtual’ awards
She’s the North Melbourne star who has dominated in the midfield this season. But Jasmine Garner knows she’ll cop plenty of stick on the job site after being voted as the game’s best player by her AFL Women’s peers.
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Jasmine Garner knows she’ll cop it at “smoko” on Tuesday.
The apprentice plumber doesn’t get away with much on the worksite – let alone being named the best player in AFL Women’s by her peers.
The North Melbourne midfielder transformed her game to become one of the game’s top midfielders in 2020, and was on Monday rewarded with the AFL Players’ Association Most Valuable Player Award.
And she knows she won’t live it down.
“The boys … they love it,” she laughed.
“Whenever they see something on social media they’re all over it.
“The guys get the Herald Sun every day, so they read up on everything and they love it.
“Definitely (this will give them some ammo today).”
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Garner, 25, played every game of the Kangaroos’ season in which the team made a preliminary final before the season was cut short due to coronavirus, finishing ahead of Blue Madison Prespakis and Collingwood’s Jaimee Lambert to claim honours in the player-voted award.
Formerly a key forward, she said the transition to being a full-time midfielder had been the brainchild of North AFLW list manager Rhys Harwood.
It’s paid off.
“Last year, there was a couple of games where I went in for a few minutes, and I think it was Rhys … who really pushed Scotty (Gowans, Roos coach) to get me in there,” she said.
“I was up for it. It adds another string to my bow. Rhys pushed it, and we stuck with it and really enjoyed it.”
Garner joins Erin Phillips and Courtney Gum who have won the award since its 2017 inception, and said joining the game’s top ranks was “pretty cool”.
“Everything happened really fast,” she said.
“I definitely didn’t expect to ever win something like this, so it is pretty cool, but I’ve got to give credit to my teammates – they allow me to play the footy that I do and be that attacking mid that is able to kick goals. Our forward line … they’re just great.”
Garner knocked off just as her gong was announced, and her phone “blew up”.
She is considered a top chance to take out the league best and fairest award, but reckons former teammate Jaimee Lambert deserves top honours, and the Roos’ best and fairest which will be announced on Friday night.
As statewide restrictions remain in place, there was no awards ceremony with the association’s AFLW nods – including best captain to Melbourne star Daisy Pearce, most courageous player to Docker Kiara Bowers and best first year player to Saints young gun Georgia Patrikios – announced digitally.
While the first virtually-awarded MVP would have enjoyed a reunion with her teammates, she admitted it was nice to skip some of the fanfare.
“It would have been nice to get together with a few of the girls, but it’s kind of good not having to dress up and get up in front of everyone,” the Roo said.
“I’m enjoying that. But I can’t wait for all this to be over and to be able to catch up with the girls and celebrate the season. It was disappointing the way it ended, but we’re pretty proud of how we played and hopefully we can continue on and build from it for next year.”