Lucas Murphy has taken out the 2011 Whitley Medal by one vote from James Huybens of Inverleigh.
The win for Murphy came after he crossed from Bellarine club Barwon Heads to East Geelong this year. He also secured back to back Whitley's for East Geelong following on from Ryan Coy's 2010 win. Coy was thereabouts again this year coming third in the count with Stephen Macelod of Thomson 4th.
Werribee Centrals Craig Hardingham was out of the gates the best polling 11 votes by Round 6 including 3 BOG's. By Round 12 Inverleighs James Huybens had slipped into a 2 vote lead from Coy and fellow ruckmen Jayden Symes, along with David Holzfiend from Bell Post Hill. At that stage Murphy was sitting back on 11 votes.
However it was the 100 goal spearheads finsh to the season that captured the umpires attention polling best on ground perfromances in 4 of the last 6 matches. He was an unbeatable winnder come round 18 of the count, but Huybens not to be out done polled the final 3 voter of the night to be one vote shy og a tie.
Murphy said the move to East Geelong re-invigorated his football outlook as he was close to giving it away at the end of last season. He has enjoyed his move into coaching with Adam Skrobolak and Darryl Rowbottom