The next breed of local AFL superstars have risen to the top in the recent Holman Medal Awards night where 2 young talents shared the honour of being crowned the Fairest and Best player for season 2009.
Brendan Iles (Warwick Redbacks) and Jeff Neumann (Coolaroo) tied for this years Holman medal on 19 votes each through18 rounds of football played during the regular season of the Allied Pickfords Cup. From the outset Neumann headed the leader board with a very strong first 4 rounds seeing him 2 votes clear of Goondiwindi captain Jeremy Leahy in the early stages of the season. But by the halfway mark of the season 2008 Holman medallist Paul Kupke (University) had stormed to the lead and many were predicting that the big University ruckman would be the first player in 30 years to claim back to back Holman wins.
The second half of the season however, was when Warwick midfielder Brendan Iles started to make his run. A sting of best on ground propelled Iles to the top of the leader board after 15 rounds and with 1 round left to play Iles held a 2 vote lead over Neumann. Neumann polled 2 votes in the last game of the season against Goondiwindi where he kicked 4 goals and accumulated close to 30 possessions while Iles was kept quiet by a fast finishing University. The drawn result between these 2 dynamic young players is a great result for the game. Both players were initially scouted through the AFL Queensland H/S football programs and did not start playing competitive AFL until their mid teens.
Development Manager Keith Webb said that “to have 2 players both very young (Neumann 19 & Iles 21) take out this years major award means that the game on the Downs is in very good hands and we are now seeing the next generation of players coming through which is very exciting”.
Paul Kupke finished the night as runner up with 14 votes while other award winners on the night were Ben Langham (Souths) Leading Goal Scorer with 70 goals for the season. Matthew Englart (Souths) took out the Best U18 player; Irishman Fergus Byrne (Coolaroo) was named Rookie of the year while University player / coach Shane Rawlings was named coach of the year. Tom North (Goondiwindi) and Keith Clarke (Warwick) shared the Volunteer of the year award while John Batten (Tigers) was named Administrator of the year.
For the umpires Pat Gipps took out the Des Janetski memorial Goal umpire of the year award, Matthew Waltisbuhl won the best junior umpire and Sam Holmes was the coveted Golden Whistle award. Congratulations to all award winners on the night and a big thank you goes out to master MC Jason Wright who did a fantastic job controlling the night’s proceedings.
Released by: Keith Webb
Position: Development Manager
AFL Queensland:
Darling Downs Email: kwebb@aflq.com.au
Picture supplied by the Toowoomba Chronicle
Last Modified on 10/03/2010 14:54