Michael Hurley 44
Zac Merrett 42
David Zaharakis 30
Brendon Goddard 27
Joe Daniher 27
Dyson Heppell 22
Orazio Fantasia 20
Martin Gleeson 18
Andrew McGrath 16
Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti 14
Cale Hooker 13
Darcy Parish 13
Tom Bellchambers 12
James Kelly 9
Mark Baguley 8
Conor Mckenna 7
Jobe Watson 7
Travis Colyer 5
James Stewart 5
Patrick Ambrose 4
Shaun McKernan 2
Congratulations to Michael Hurley who defeated last yearâs winner, Zac Merrett, by 2 votes. Neither managed to poll in our final. Rounding out the top 5 were David Zaharakis (30 votes), Brendon Goddard and Joe Daniher - both with 27 votes.
This is Hurleyâs second Nobby Clarke, to go alongside the one he shared with Brent Stanton in 2015. Well done Hurls!
He does need to be a lot better in the one on ones next year. He was previously our best lockdown defender but has been instructed to set himself up for the rebound and intercept more, invariably leading to weaker one on one positioning. Every player at every club has areas of improvement though.
For me this result is as much a validation of his champion attitude and mental state to win this award and AA selection after a year not playing and four years playing under a cloud.
I must admit, this is one year where the Nobby results didnât really end up the way my rememberer thinks they shouldâve.
May simply be because we had a lot of players in patchy form, and it was difficult to find anyone that was playing the game to a high level with consistency.
Games polling votes
Zac Merrett 14
Michael Hurley 13
Brendon Goddard 10
Joe Daniher 9
David Zaharakis 8
Dyson Heppell 8
Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti 7
Orazio Fantasia 6
Andrew McGrath 5
Mark Baguley 5
Martin Gleeson 4
Darcy Parish 4
Conor Mckenna 4
Jobe Watson 4
Cale Hooker 3
Tom Bellchambers 3
James Kelly 3
James Stewart 2
Travis Colyer 1
Patrick Ambrose 1
Shaun McKernan 1
Most games played without polling
Michael Hartley 18
Josh Green 17
David Myers 15
Brent Stanton 7
Matthew Leuenberger 7
Ben Howlett 7
Kyle Langford 6
Matt Dea 6
Jayden Laverde 5
Mitch Brown 4
Josh Begley 3
Aaron Francis 2
Craig Bird 2
Heath Hocking 2
Ben McNiece 2
Games polling maximum votes
Player 5
Michael Hurley 5
Martin Gleeson 3
Joe Daniher 3
David Zaharakis 3
Dyson Heppell 2
Zac Merrett 2
Travis Colyer 1
Cale Hooker 1
Andrew McGrath 1
Orazio Fantasia 1
Brendon Goddard 1
Leaders through the season
Dyson Heppell Round 1
Orazio Fantasia Round 2 to 3
Zac Merrett Round 2 to 5 and Round 9
Brendon Goddard Round 6 to 8 and Round 10
Michael Hurley Round 10 onwards
Longest run of polling votes in consecutive matches
Brendan Goddard 7 â Round 1 to 7
Michael Hurley 6 â Round 6 to 11
Zac Merrett 6 â Round 4 to 9
Joe Daniher 5 â Round 5 to 9
Michael Hurley 4 â Round 14 to 17
David Zaharakis 4 Round 19 to 22
Most Votes without polling in consecutive matches
Dyson Heppell 22 (polled in 8 matches)
Martin Gleeson 18 (polled in 4 matches)
Darcy Parish 13 (polled in 4 matches)
Cale Hooker 13 (polled in 3 matches)
Percentage of games played where votes were polled
Zac Merrett 63.6%
Michael Hurley 61.9%
Brendon Goddard 43.5%
Joe Daniher 39.1%
David Zaharakis 34.8%
Dyson Heppell 34.8%
Shaun McKernan 33.3%
Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti 30.4%
Orazio Fantasia 30.0%
Andrew McGrath 23.8%
Mark Baguley 22.7%
Martin Gleeson 22.2%
Tom Bellchambers 21.4%
Conor Mckenna 21.1%
Darcy Parish 20.0%
Jobe Watson 20.0%
Cale Hooker 15.0%
James Kelly 15.0%
James Stewart 12.5%
Patrick Ambrose 10.0%
Travis Colyer 4.5%
When the Marty Party gets in the votes⌠he gets all the votes, and they have to close the voting. In the votes 4 times, and got BOG 3 of those times.
We may have been a bit harsh on Zerrett this year. Polling votes in 64% of games played but only getting best on twice.
Goddard polled 19 votes from rounds 1-7 vs 8 votes for rounds 8-23. So slowing down, but still better than 3/4 of the squad. Having said that, he only polled 15 votes in 2016⌠so maybe he is getting better.
Kelly with 9, Watson with 7, and maybe Smack with 2, maybe the only players that polled votes that wonât be here for 2018. In addition, almost every player that got votes would have reason to be optimistic they will play better in 2018. Thatâs a very solid base to build into next year with.
Most players found it harder to get votes this year. Excluding the players who didnât play in 2016⌠the increased vote getters were
Goddard (15-27)
Daniher (26-27)
Fantasia (17-20)
Gleeson (6-18)
Baguley (4-8)
McKenna (0-7)
McKernan (0-2)
As well as first year Bomber players McGrath picking up a very impressive 16 (matching Parishâs first year, but still nowhere near Heppell in his first year with 30.), and Jimmy Stewart on 5.
Great work. I am also going to post some further analysis based on voting patterns over the season - which picks up on some of the points you have raised.