The annual Suncoast Power and Volunteer/Coaches Awards have been run and won for another year following a tremendous evening at the Maroochy RSL on Friday night.
For the first time this year the Suncoast Power awards were held alongside the Volunteer/Coaches Awards which are traditionally held at the Junior Presentation evening.
Kicking off at 6pm clubs and Power representatives filed into the events centre for what was to be a night of magic, celebration, food and good times.
Magician Peter May floated around the crowded and wowed attendees with tricks of the trade but his best was yet to come...
The first lot of awards off the ranks was the AFL Auskick Coordinator and AFL Auskick Volunteers of the year.
We all know the tremendous amount of work our AFL Auskick representatives contribute on a weekly basis- Brownyn Arnold-Briggs from Nambour and Hinterland AFC took out the coordinator title while the dynamic duo from Noosa, Karen and Cody Carr came away with the volunteer’s award.
The Suncoast Power ‘commitment to program’ awards were next on the agenda with Ben Meehan and Regan Glynn taking out the Under 14’s with Elliot Escott-Kenny and Jack Clouston from the Under 16’s.
Dinner was served and an impressive buffet spread put a smile on some hungry faces.
Suncoast Power encouragement awards were up next and were taken out by Dan Ryan, Matt Bradford, Gareth Hunt, Ben Glover and Jye Bennett from the Under 14’s alongside Brad Forbes, Tom Buckle, Alex Mahony, Tate Parbery and Jackson Gray from the Under 16’s team.
The next awards to be handed out were in the hotly contested category of junior, youth and senior coach of the year.
Lynden Griffiths of Coolum took out junior coach of the year with Maroochydore’s Matt Bury announced best youth coach of the year and Sam Krushka from Pomona taking out senior coach of the year.
Darren Carlson won the Sunshine Coast Club Coaching Coordinator of the year.
Following these awards, Peter May took to the stage for some entertaining group performances courtesy of our willing participants in the audience of volunteers.
His first comic routine was stolen by the masked Rohan Briggs...let’s just say he has some pretty impressive Michael Jackson moves that wowed the audience.
Keith Hicks (Hicksy) showed us that he knows a thing or two about ‘shaking it’ and was the deserving winner of the on-stage dance off.
After a short break for sweets, Luke Power took to the stage and the scene was set for an interview show down with Kanga.
The interview touched on everything from AFL player salaries to the Lion’s performance in 2011 and injuries.
It was refreshing to hear that AFL players injure themselves doing ‘normal’ house-hold duties as well: Power confessing to pulling out of a match at the start of the year the night before because he hurt is back lifting a baby bath.
Following a short interval of heads or tails which was won by Kawana’s Ian Pain, the remaining Suncoast Power awards were presented.
In the 14’s Best Team Man was taken out by Jesse Malthouse, the One Per Cent award went to Brenton Philp, Most Improved was awarded to Sam Hodgson, while in the Best and Fairest count Brad Illot finished at number three with Courey Hubscher coming in as runner up and Steve Eekleschott was voted the Best and Fairest.
Best Team Man in the 16’s was tied between Jake Strong and Zac Southern, the One Per Cent award was taken out by Callum Mann, while Nick Selman was awarded the Most Improved, third in the Best and Fairest count was Jacob Chapman, Runner Up was Haydn Smoothy and Cain Tickner was voted the Best and Fairest.
As the evening was coming to a close it was time for the highly anticipated volunteer awards to be announced.
In a strongly contested Junior Club Volunteer of the year field, Robyn Tozer from Bribie Island took the honours with Graeme Meredith of the Maroochydore Northshore AFC claiming the Senior Club Volunteer of the year and Bribie Island umpire, Mitch Vanderland, taking out the Junior League Volunteer of the year.
Josephine Traill, Warren Dale, Lesley Gleeson and Karen Carr also received recognition plaques from the AFL Sunshine Coast Juniors for their contributions to the junior league and their clubs.
Wrapping up the presentation night was the announcement of the 2011 Suncoast Power team of the year:
FB: Trent Manzone Courey Hubscher Jake Crawford
(Qld Seniors) (Power 14’s) (Gold Coast Suns)
HB: Josh Drummond Cain Tickner Ben Glover
(Brisbane Lions) (Power 16’s) (Power 14’s)
C: Sam Reid Hayden Smoothy Zac Southern
(Western Bulldogs) (Power 16’s) (Power 16’s)
HF: Nick Selman Steve Eekleschot Chris Smith
(Power 16’s) (Power 14’s) (Qld Seniors)
FF: Alik Magin Lachlan Keeffe Aaron Laskey
(Gold Coast Suns) (Collingwood) (Qld 18’s)
Rucks: Jackson Gray Brad Ilott Jacob Chapman
(Power 16’s) (Power 14’s) (Power 16’s)
Int: Dan Ryan, Hayden Matthews Jye Bennett Sub: Alex Mahony
(Power 14’s) (Power 16’s) (Power 14’s) (Power 16’s)
It was a sensational evening and thank you to all involved in the preparation and execution of evening’s formalities.
If you attended the evening Mark Kennedy would appreciate any feedback you have about the evening, after all it was the first time that the Suncoast Power and Volunteer/Coaches awards have been formatted together and it would be great if 2012 could be just as successful.
Contact Mark Kennedy: mkennedy@aflq.com.au
Last Modified on 31/08/2011 15:52