AFLW 2023: Monique Conti wins fifth consecutive Richmond best and fairest

Monique Conti has played seven seasons in the AFLW and won a best and fairest every year except one in an unprecedented streak.

Monique Conti has won her club’s best and fairest in six of the seven AFLW seasons she has played. Picture: Morgan Hancock / Getty Images

AFLW superstar Monique Conti has capped off a busy awards period with Richmond’s best and fairest medal to continue a stunning a league-record streak.

The award was Conti’s fifth consecutive Richmond best and fairest and sixth club gong in a row, after she claimed the Western Bulldogs’ top honour in 2019 before crossing to the Tigers ahead of their first season in the competition.

The only season Conti has not been named her club’s best was her debut campaign in 2018, when she finished eighth in the Bulldogs’ count and was runner-up Rising Star behind then-Collingwood star Chloe Molloy.

Monique Conti has won a fifth consecutive Richmond best and fairest after claiming the Bulldogs’ top gong in the previous season. Picture: Morgan Hancock / Getty Images

Despite her dominance in the league best and fairest count, in which Conti had victory sewn up with two rounds to play, she only won the Tigers’ award by a two-vote margin from All-Australian defender Eilish Sheerin.

Winger Kate Dempsey led the count with four games to play but slid to third as Conti polled the maximum votes in all five of Richmond’s victories.

Conti suited up for the Melbourne Boomers in the WNBL on Sunday night before receiving the Tigers best and fairest the next day.

After claiming the AFLW medal last week she made clear she intended to continue playing both sports rather than only focus on football.

Conti says continuing to play basketball in the WNBL is helping her improve as a footballer. Picture: Darrian Traynor / Getty Images

“I love the sport, it’s something I have loved doing my whole life so I don’t see why I should stop,” Conti said.

“They complement each other a lot … the way you move, even on defence, you move together as a team.

You’ve go to have good peripheral vision, be able to make decisions in a quick among of time – it’s shaped the way I am as a footballer for sure.”

St Kilda star Jaimee Lambert took out the Saints’ best and fairest in her first season after crossing from Collingwood as a PSP signing ahead in March.

The 31-year-old added to her All-Australian blazer with a comfortable 14-vote win in the award over Tyanna Smith (second) and Georgia Patrikios (third).