CDRL Gold Medal winner hopes to take game up a notch
A desire to play at a higher level still burns for Cairns District Rugby League Gold Medal winner Jacob Wallace.
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A desire to play at a higher level still burns for Cairns District Rugby League Gold Medal winner Jacob Wallace.
The Ivanhoe Knights hooker capped off a stellar individual season by taking out the league’s highest honour for best and fairest A-grade player.
Wallace has played a major role in taking the Knights back to the finals for the first time in four seasons, not only with his attacking prowess and toughness through the middle, but his leadership.
He said watching his Ivanhoe teammates rise inspired the Gold Medal win.
“Just getting around the boys there, they make you want to do your best and you want to work for them as well, I reckon that’s probably the main thing, just enjoying the players and the coaching staff you’re around,” he said.
“You know you’re respected so you want to go out there and do the best you can for them, as well as yourself.”
Third time was the charm for Wallace, after he finished in the top 10 for the Gold Medal 2018 and 2019.
He also won back-to-back Moore Family Medals (under-18s) in 2014 and 2015 and the CDJRL Silver Medal (under-16s) in 2013 coming up through the grades as a junior.
A former Northern Pride under-18s and under-20s player, Wallace said he would relish a chance to play at a higher level.
“Q Cup’s always the next step, fingers crossed, but it’s not my call to make,” he said.
“If that opportunity arises again, like it did a year and a bit ago, I’d take it with both hands.”
Wallace suited up for the Pride in a pre-season trial in 2020, showing he was still on the club’s radar, but any hope of a permanent return was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It hurts every now and then, but you just got to move on,” he said.
“You have your good years and your bad years in footy, you’ve just got to take the good when it comes.”
Wallace needed only nine rounds to sew up the Gold Medal, polling the maximum three votes in rounds 1, 2, 5, 7 and 9, as well as two votes in round 6, to take his total to 17 before the season reached the half-way mark.
He polled another seven votes over the last 11 rounds to finish on 24, finishing eight votes clear of Mareeba’s Clint Posselt as runner-up.
Wallace, a chippy by trade, was “lost for words” after taking out the league’s top honour.
“I couldn’t imagine this in a million years,” he said.
Ivanhoe president Noel Slade said he couldn’t think of a more deserving winner.
“He’s been in the running for a few years now,” he said.
“On the field, I think at times he might the referee a bit of curry, but he’s passionate, and he trains hard, even before the season starts.”
The Knights also claimed the Jack Seary Club Champions shield, a goal Slade said the club had set two years ago.
“We said it at the beginning of 2020 but obviously we had no games,” he said.
“So this year again when we sat down we said let’s have a crack at the club champions, because if you get that you’ve got teams in the finals, so we sort of approached the whole thing a little bit differently.”
Kerr lauds game’s resurgence after historic medal win
The inaugural winner of Cairns District Rugby League’s Deb Gallop Medal has dedicated the award to every women that played a part in the game’s resurgence this season.
Ivanhoe Maidens captain Jo Kerr said she was honoured to be the first woman to receive the medal, named after local servant of the game and long-serving Northern Pride sports trainer Deb Gallop.
“Anyone that knows me knows I don’t normally get speechless so this is quite special,” she said.
“I certainly don’t think I’m the best player, by far, and I can think of plenty of other players – I kind of want to do a Mean Girls and break it up and throw it to all the girls.”
The Maidens leader was referencing the 2004 film in which the character of Cady Heron, played by Lindsay Lohan, wins the Spring Fling Queen crown, only to break it into pieces and share it with the rest of the nominees.
It would have been a fitting way to end what has been a remarkable year for women’s footy in the region, which marked the return of women’s rugby league in the Far North after a decade of no regular competition.
Since moving to Cairns four years ago, Kerr has been heavily involved in the women’s game, as a player, coach, administrator and as an advocate for a local women’s competition.
“It’s been a pretty tough slog trying to get women’s footy back up and running but I’m just really proud of the six clubs that put their hand up and got involved and proud of the CDRL for bringing women back on board,” she said.
“The first year has been outstanding and there’s only better things to come.”
She said it was great that there was now a defined pathway that promising young talent in the region could follow.
“We’ve got Northern Pride, Gold Stars and even the Cowboys looking at NRLW in the next couple of years,” she said.
“It’s been really important to have the women’s competition, just because we’ve got so many young girls coming up through the ranks and they’ve got something now to play for.”
As well as captaining the Maidens to the grand final this season, Kerr was the assistant coach for the Northern Pride U19 Girls’ side.
Ivanhoes talisman named the best at CDRL Gold Medal awards
An unheralded workhorse has been awarded the highest honour in the Cairns District Rugby League, with Ivanhoes hooker Jacob Wallace entering the record books as the 2021 Gold Medal winner.
Wallace is among the most consistent footballers in the CDRL, which he proved time and again for the Knights in their run to the finals.
CAIRNS POST TO LIVESTREAM ALL CDRL FINALS
And now he has the gong to prove it, running away with the medal as he finished a phenomenal eight points clear of his nearest rival, Mareeba’s Clint Posselt.
He was once part of the Northern Pride’s Emerging Pride program for promising footballers, and played in the junior grades for the Intrust Super Cup club. In 2020, he suited up for the Pride in a pre-season trial, proving he remained on the club’s radar.
A tough defender, ball-running, play-making No. 9 with quality vision and a lethal right boot, Wallace finished the season with 122 points from nine tries and 43 goals.
He was one of three Ivanhoes players in the top 11, with Whyatt Barnes and Dave Murphy among a five-way tie for seventh.
It was an outstanding night for Ivanhoes, who were named the Jack Seary club champions, with all three teams qualifying for the finals, while Maidens captain Jo Kerr was awarded the Deb Gallop Medal for the player of the year in the first women’s competition in a decade.
THE RESULTS
PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
Gold Medal (A-grade)
Jacob Wallace (Ivanhoes)
Deb Gallop Medal (Women)
Jo Kerr (Ivanhoes)
Reserve Grade
Terence Massey (Suburbs)
Under-18s
Makgill Deemal-Neal (Kangaroos)
U16s – FNQRL COAST
Jace Williams (Kangaroos)
U16s – FNQRL EACHAM
Tait Coghlan (Malanda)
OTHER AWARDS
Jack Seary Club Champions
Ivanhoe Knights
Chairman’s Trophy for Coach of the Year
Jordan Biondi-Odo (Brothers)
Leading tryscorers
Matthew Gibuma and Stanley Anau (Mossman-PD) 20 tries
Referee of the Year
Guy Miller
Tom Tassell Memorial Award for Rookie of the Year
Trezman Banjo (Mareeba)
Rebecca Bowie Award
Karlee Robinson (Atherton)
Life membership
Darryl Hansen
GOLD MEDAL’S TOP FINISHERS
Jacob Wallace (Ivanhoes) 24
Clint Posselt (Mareeba) 16
Cephas Chinfat (Suburbs) 15
Ammiel Harris (Yarrabah) 15
Aaron Jolley (Innisfail) 15
Ty Grogan (Atherton) 12
Robbie Amber (Mossman-Port Douglas) 11
Whyatt Barnes (Ivanhoes) 11
Taulata Fakalelu (Innisfail) 11
Robbie Haren (Innisfail) 11
Dave Murphy (Ivanhoes) 11
JOLLEY TOPS CDRL POINTSCORING TALLY
AARON Jolley’s love for a field goal proved crucial in the chase for Cairns District Rugby League’s top pointscorer title, with the Innisfail Leprechaun holding off two spirited chasers to claim the unofficial gong for 2021.
Jolley scored 166 points this year from 12 tries, 57 goals and four field goals, finishing just four points clear of Mossman-Port Douglas Sharks centre Bronson Ryan, who, remarkably, also scored 12 tries and kicked 57 goals.
Atherton winger Ty Grogan started slowly but finished with a bang as his Roosters found form towards the back half of the campaign, eventually scoring 160 points (15 tries, 50 goals) to round out the top three.
Six players reached triple figures, in a season in which 4916 points were scored across the entire competition.
The clubs combined for 905 tries, with Brothers (120), Mossman (110) and Yarrabah (103) reaching triple figures, and 644 goals, over the season.
The CDRL does not award the top pointscorer as part of their Gold Medal Awards night, with Jolley claiming bragging rights as he prepares for another post-season with Leps.
IVANHOES STEELED FOR SEAHAWKS CHALLENGE
Wallace is among Jono Zangrande’s leading men in the Ivanhoes’ A-grade side as they prepare to face a Yarrabah Seahawks outfit known for their attacking prowess.
Wallace, halves Zane Knowles and Rhylee Herd, and fullback Rhy Young hold the key to Ivanhoes’ success given their important positions on the field, but Zangrande said the entire squad – almost all of whom were developed by or played most of their footy at the Smithfield club – had to ready to rip in.
“You have to get it done from the start, that’s the thing with sudden death finals, you have to get in and play,” he said. “We’re about as ready as we can be.
“We have strength across the park; we’re not there to make up the numbers.
“We’ve built that side too, we haven’t bought any players. We brought in Murph (Dave Murphy) to lead the younger guys and teach them, but the rest are guys who have been here for along time.”
Ivanhoes will have three teams in the finals, which kick off this Sunday – and you can watch every minute of every games this finals series on the Cairns Post website. Readers must have a subscription to view the games.
The U18s elimination final between Brothers and Kangaroos will kick off more than nine hours of action, culminating with what promises to be an epic A-grade qualifying final between two-time defending premiers Mossman-Port Douglas Sharks and Innisfail Leprechauns.
matthew.mcinerney1@news.com.au
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