CEDUNA midfielder wins Far West league's Mail MedalIT'S a footballer's bitter-sweet irony: win the competition's best player award, then a few days later, play in a losing grand final side.
Spare a thought for Waylon Johncock because that's happened twice now to the gun Ceduna midfielder whose stellar 2008 season with the Blues was rewarded with his being named Mail Medallist as South Australia's Far West Football League's best-and-fairest player.
Johncock polled 29 votes to win the award, three more than grand final opponent, Western United's Jarrad Murphy. If he could, though, Johncock would gladly swap his Mail Medal with the premiership one denied him by United in the grand final by 55 points, 16.10 (106) to 8.3 (51).
The Blues were three points down at half-time and in with a shot at three-quarter-time but the experienced Tigers line-up ran away with it in the fourth quarter to win their sixth consecutive flag.
Johncock has yet to win a premiership as a senior player. To add to his frustration, he travelled the 400km to Port Lincoln to watch his former team Mallee Park go down in their grand final.
"I would've preferred to have the premiership this year because that's really what I want," Johncock said. "You just want that feeling and I've seen that growing up. That's the reward and once they get it, they've earned it."
But he said the year wasn't totally wasted.
"I think I offered the club a lot, I really showed them what I can do this season," Johncock said.
The Mail Medal is the 21-year-old's second after winning SA country football's best-and-fairest award as an 18-year-old with Mallee Park Football Club in the Port Lincoln league in 2005.
He attributes his win to being disciplined in his preparation, but that the 2005 medal was the start of his maturing as a player.
"I reckon I sort of just came out of my shell after that," he said.
"I felt I had so much to offer. I didn't have much success in fairest-and-best awards or other trophies before then. But when I won the first Mail Medal I reckon it made me the person I am today."
Mates win Mail Medals, tooCEDUNA's 2008 Mail Medallist Waylon Johncock may have missed out on winning a flag this year, but he has shared this season's top individual award with others he has grown up and played footy with.
South Whyalla's Ray McIntosh polled 24 votes to win the Whyalla league's best-and-fairest award to grab his second Mail Medal; his first was with Roopena in the same league in 2006.
And Hayden Parker won the Port Lincoln league's best-and-fairest after polling 18 votes with Marble Range.
* See more Mail Medal winners at the links above: Records > South Australia.
DARREN MONCRIEFF
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Last Modified on 23/09/2008 20:34