Monday, 6 September, 2010
Melbourne wingman Rohan Bail, Gold Coast ruckman Zac Smith and Southport skipper Danny Wise are first-time inclusions in the Queensland Team of the Year for 2010.
St.Kilda midfielder David Armitage is the fourth new face from the 2009 Queensland Team of the Year, winning back a spot he first won in 2008.
Bail, the 2008 QAFL Rising Star winner and 2007 Mt.Gravatt premiership player who began 2010 with just one AFL game behind him, was chosen on the wing after showing huge potential during nine senior outings with the Demons.
For only the second time, selectors went outside AFL ranks to pick the 2010 Team of the Year, including Smith from the VFL and Wise from the QAFL State League.
Smith, in just his fourth year of serious football, was recognized for an outstanding year with the Gold Coast in which he was fourth in the Suns’ B&F, was judged the club’s Most Professional Player, and won a spot in the VFL Team of the Year.
Wise was chosen on the back of an outstanding year in which he was a wonderfully consistent performer at QAFL level and skippered Queensland to a record-breaking win over Tasmania on the Gold Coast in June, when he was among the Maroons’ very best performers.
The only other non-AFL player chosen in the Team of the Year was Clint Alleway, who was chosen in 2008 after a standout year for North Adelaide in the SANFL.
St.Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt was named Queensland Team of the Year captain for the fourth year in a row despite missing a large slice of the season with injury.
Riewoldt was one of nine players who have been chosen in the Team of the Year each year since it was instituted in 2007. The others are his St.Kilda teammate Sam Gilbert, Brisbane’s Josh Drummond and Daniel Merrett, the Western Bulldogs’ Mitch Hahn, Jarrod Harbrow and Ben Hudson, Melbourne’s Joel Macdonald and Hawthorn’s Michael Osborne.
Third-time inclusions were Melbourne’s Ricky Petterd (2007-09-10), Adelaide’s Kurt Tippett (2008-09-10) and the Bulldogs’ Tom Williams (2007-09-10).
Second-time inclusions were Armitage (2008-10), Collingwood’s Dayne Beams (2009-10), Essendon’s Courtenay Dempsey (2009-10), North Melbourne’s Ben Warren (2009-10), Sydney’s Jesse White (2009-10) and Hawthorn’s Brendan Whitecross (2009-10).
In changes to the 2009 Team of the Year, Bail, Smith, Wise and Armitage replaced Western Bulldogs Brownlow Medalist Jason Akermanis, Richmond’s Luke McGuane, Brisbane’s Cheynee Stiller and North Melbourne’s Gavin Urquhart.
The Queensland Team of the Year for 2010 is:-
B: Jarrod Harbrow (WB), Daniel Merrett (BL), Sam Gilbert (StK);
HB: Courtenay Dempsey (Ess), Tom Williams (WB), Joel Macdonald (Melb);
C: Josh Drummond (BL), Dayne Beams (Coll), Rohan Bail (Melb);
HF: Brendan Whitecross (Haw), Nick Riewoldt (StK – capt), Michael Osborne (Haw);
F: Ben Warren (NM), Kurt Tippett (Adel), Jesse White (Syd);
R: Ben Hudson (WB), Mitch Hahn (WB), David Armitage (StK);
INT: Brent Renouf (Haw), Ricky Petterd (Melb), Zac Smith (G/Coast), Danny Wise (S’port).
