Midfielder Damien Bonney has capped off a sensational 2010 season, winning the B&F award with QAFL premiers Morningside.
Monday, 11 October, 2010
Midfielder Damien Bonney has capped off a sensational 2010 season, winning the B&F award with QAFL premiers Morningside.
The 22-year-old veteran polled in 11 of 18 home-and-away games for a total of 85 votes to win his first Devery-Kelly Medal from retiring ruckman Jacob Gough (79) and boom ACT recruit Aaron Rogers (75).
Fittingly, Bonney, Gough and Rogers were the three Morningside players chosen in the QAFL State League team of the year, and topped the club’s vote-count in the Syd Guildford Trophy.
Also, Bonney and Gough headed the club vote tally in the Grogan Medal with State teammate Mark Kimball.
Votes in the coveted B&F award, named after inaugural premiership captain-coach Terry Devery and long-time club present Barry Kelly, were awarded through the home-and-away season by a Morningside match committee which consisted of senior coach John Blair and assistant coaches Mark Holman, Matthew Smith and Clint Watts.
Gough was on track to win his third consecutive Panthers B&F when he led the vote-count after Round 10 before Bonney collected big 38 votes against Brisbane Lions (R12), Mt Gravatt (R13) and Southport (R14) to hit the front heading into the last three rounds.
Gough regained the lead with a strong showing against Broadbeach in R16 against Broadbeach, enjoying a two-vote buffer before Bonney finished with six votes in the final round against Redland.
Bonney’s win caps a standout year for the former Morningside junior and one-time junior basketball ace, who, after stint out of football, rejoined the code via Sherwood in 2005 before returning ‘home’ to Esplen Oval in 2006.
Since then he has been a competition standout, sharing in senior premierships with the Panthers in 2009-10 after a grand final loss in 2008, twice earning QAFL Team of the Year selection, and making his debut for Queensland in the record-breaking win over Tasmania this year.
He is enormously well-regarded within club ranks for his ability to get first use of the ball and to use it to his team’s advantage, and his ability to kick goals from outside the 50m arc, as he demonstrated in big games against the Lions, Southport and Labrador.
The ever-competitive ex-defender was judged best afield in Rounds 3-7-12-14, while he was judged to be in the side’s best five players no less than eight times.
Centreman Paul Shelton, winner of the Zane Taylor Medal as best afield for Queensland against Tasmania, finished 4th in the Panthers B&F with 71 votes despite missing four games due to an overseas holiday mid-year.
Nathan Kinch (65) was fifth ahead of Ryan Holman (52), Austin Lucy (50), Tyson Upton (46), Nic Tomlinson (38) and Joe Grant Medalist Kent Abey (37).
In other awards, Rogers was awarded “Best Finals Player”, defender Alastair Nash was named “Most Improved Player”, Tom Bell took out the “Charlie King Rookie of the Year” and Lucy won the “ALP Player of the Year”.
David Lillico, long-time captain who overcame an early season knee reconstruction to play in the Panthers come-from-behind grand final win over Labrador, was awarded a framed Queensland jumper from AFL Queensland in recognition of his services to the State Team.
In positional awards made to best forward, midfielder and defender, winners at senior level were Shaun Mugavin, Bonney and Jarrod Price.
In lower grade awards, Gray Hewson (64 votes) won the Reserves B&F by one vote from Luke Edwards (63), Logan Bower (53), Chris Wykes (49) and Sandy Hampson (45), while Townsville recruit Joel Sim (74) won the U18 B&F from James Guatrey (71), Andrew Bissett (68), Jesse Wallin (66) and James Diamond (65).
Josh Bruekers, Blane Delbridgeand Ben McNeice won the positional awards in the Reserves, and Duncan Scott, Joel Sim and Jackson Coppin likewise in the U18s.
Abey won the senior goal-kicking award, with Bower (Reserves) and Duncan Scott and Joel Sim (U18s) collecting the corresponding awards in the lower grades.
Shelton was judged the club’s ‘Representative Player of the Year’, while State U18 ace Peter Yagmoor won the ‘U18 Representative Player of the Year’.
Nat Price (Reserves) and Jack Ryan (U18s) won the Most Improved Awards in the lower grades, while Yagmoor was named Best Finals Player in the Reserves, and Mike Mollison won the Club Spirit Award. Jesse Wallin won the ‘U18 Coach’s Award’.
Senior presentations also were made to Mugavin for his 100th senior game for the club, and to Shelton, Brett Connell, Holman and Nash for their 50th game.
