Words: Matt Dorman
Image: Olympic FC

Matt Byrne and Darren Gray received the major awards at Olympic FC’s Senior Awards dinner at The Greek Club on Thursday night.

Byrne and Gray split the silverware from a season in which Olympic FC shone both in PlayStation 4 NPL Queensland competition and the inaugural Westfield FFA Cup.

Midfield hard-man Darren Gray netted the Senior Men’s Best and Fairest award, defensive rock Matt Byrne was named both Most Consistent and Player’s Player of the Year.

Speaking at the awards, Byrne said he was particularly proud to be recognised by his teammates.

“It’s really an honour to win the Player’s Player. It’s always a pleasure to be acknowledged by your peers, it’s probably the most important award,” Byrne said.

“I wasn’t really expecting to win it, I thought there were a couple of other boys who were very good this season and the whole team played well.

“We’ve got a great bunch of lads here and we have a lot of fun,” Byrne added.

After a seamless return to his junior days as a central-defender this term Byrne has re-signed with Olympic FC for next season. He said he was looking toward another successful campaign next year.

“We were unlucky not to win a few finals but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes,” he said.

“We want to win trophies next year, we want to go as far as we can in the NPL Finals Series and FFA Cup and with a few extra additions I think we can do it.”

“There are only two clubs in Brisbane I see consistently being in the NPL Finals and I’m happy at this one.”

Young goalkeeper Brandon Cuminao was acknowledged for his breakthrough season with the Goalkeeper of the Year award and senior men’s Most Improved Player award.

Mustafa Jafari, who scored against Melbourne Knights in the Westfield FFA Cup, received two Youth Men’s awards as well as the Senior Men’s Encouragement Award.

Dylan Wenzell-Halls, who scored a remarkable 52 goals for the club across the Under 18 Boys, Youth Men’s and Senior Men’s teams, was named Junior Player of the Year.

Awards for Olympic FC’s junior PlayStation 4 NPL Queensland teams were presented at a separate junior awards event.

The complete list of award winners are:

Under-12 Boys
Best and Fairest - Kieran Coates
Player's Player - Alex Crocker

Under-13 Girls
Best and Fairest - Emily Ibell
Player's Player - Amy Lam

Under-13 Boys
Best and Fairest - Thanasi Kalatzis
Player's Player - Tyson Martin

Under-14 Boys
Best and Fairest - Callum Harris

Under-15 Girls
Best and Fairest - Maddie Moy
Player's Player - Maddie Moy & Pippa Schiavo

Under-15 Boys
Best and Fairest - Dane Ingham
Player's Player - Alex Sargent

Under-16 Boys
Most Improved – Byron Sinnerton
Best and Fairest - Liam O'Bryan
Player's Player - Tim Morgan

Under-18 Boys
Most Improved – Dylan Wenzell-Halls
Best and Fairest - Jacob Minett
Player's Player - Jacob Minett

Youth Men
Most Improved – Brandon Cuminao
Best and Fairest - Mustafa Jafari
Player's Player - Corey Sewell

Senior Men
Encouragement Award – Mustafa Jafari
Goalkeeper of the Year – Brandon Cuminao
Most Consistent – Matt Byrne
Golden Boot – Reuben Way
Most Improved – Brandon Cuminao
Best and Fairest - Darren Gray
Player's Player - Matt Byrne