Haiden Schloithe claims 2014 WJ Hughes Medal

HAIDEN Schloithe has been recognised for his outstanding season on return from Fremantle’s AFL list with the South Fremantle Football Club awarding him the WJ Hughes Medal as its fairest and best winner for the 2014 WAFL season.

The WJ Hughes Medal night for 2014 was held on Friday in the Griff John Function Centre at Fremantle Oval and was a time to acknowledge the efforts of senior coach Paul Hasleby over the past three seasons and to look forward to a strong future that he has helped set up for incoming coach Todd Curley.

South Fremantle might have missed finals for the third straight season, but there were terrific signs with five straight wins to close out the season and with each and every player featured on the fairest and best leaderboard committed to being with the club in 2015, the future looks bright.

Schloithe received the WJ Hughes Medal for 2014 in recognition of a terrific season he delivered as an attacking, goalkicking midfielder in his first season back full time with the Bulldogs after two seasons on the Fremantle Dockers’ rookie-list.

The 21-year-old was a colts premiership player with South Fremantle prior to being picked up by Fremantle and was quick to rejoin the Bulldogs for 2014, and put together a season that could very well lead him back into the AFL.

Schloithe kicked 25 goals in his 20 games this season including four in Round 6 against East Fremantle and he also averaged almost 24 possessions a game including 38 in Round 4 against Swan Districts, 37 in Round 5 against West Perth and 30 in Round 16 against Perth.

Schloithe finished the fairest and best count on 48 votes to be nine votes clear of the runner-up Tim Kelly with Ashton Hams finishing third a further vote back on 37.

Dylan Ross and Nick Borovac both took further strides in their careers as strong defenders in 2014 and that was reflected in the fairest and best voting with the pair finishing fourth and fifth respectively with Ross finishing with 32 votes and Borovac 30.

Adam Guglielmana began his season as a small forward but finished in defence and despite missing four games with a hamstring injury, was sixth in the voting with 29 votes while Toby Bairstow spent the first three weeks in the reserves, but had a terrific season after that in the midfield.

Bairstow ended up polling 28 votes for the season as did emerging and prolific ball-winning midfielder Brendan Verrier.

Captain, and former two-time Hughes Medal winner, Ryan Cook also ended up on 28 votes and would have been much higher up in the leaderboard had he not missed the final seven games through injury.

Further highlighting the depth that South Fremantle has for incoming coach Todd Curley to work with is the fact that the likes of Bernie Naylor Medallist Ben Saunders, Craig White, Brock Higgins, Jacob Martinez, Steven Verrier, Shaun Bewick and James Sellar are all key players not featured in the top nine in the vote count for the 2014 season.

Other league award winners on the night saw Ben Sokol take home the Shearer Family Trophy for the Best First Year player and Jarrod Parry receive the Culver Family Courage and Perseverance Award in recognition of his outstanding progression from a horror run of knee injuries.

Meanwhile the reserves award winners for 2014 were also announced with Lewis Harvey awarded the Roy McGuinness Medal as the fairest and best winner with 21 votes ahead of Ben Sokol on 19 votes and Tim Stewart on 18.

LEAGUE AWARD WINNERS
WJ Hughes Medal (Fairest and Best) – Haiden Schloithe

N MacDonald Memorial Trophy (Runner-up) – Tim Kelly

Past Player & Officials Trophy (Third place) – Ashton Hams

John Gerovich Trophy (Leading Goalkicker) – Ben Saunders (59 goals)

Shearer Family Award (Best First Year Player) – Ben Sokol

Culver Family Award (Courage & Perseverance) – Jarrod Parry

RESERVES AWARD WINNERS
Roy McGuinness Medal (Fairest and Best) – Lewis Harvey

Centurion Club Award (Runner-up Fairest and Best) – Ben Sokol

Harold Harper Award (Third Fairest and Best) – Tim Stewart