Bulldogs colts award winners announced

SOUTH Fremantle's colts had another strong season in 2013 making it all the way to a third successive grand final and Jacob Dragovich has been awarded the Dave Ingraham Memorial Medal.

Dragovich was announced as the South Fremantle colts fairest and best winner for 2013 for his terrific season that sees the 17-year-old come away with the Dave Ingraham Memorial Medal as a reward.

The prolific ball winning midfielder might have been named the fairest and best for the 2013 season, but there were a host of other star performers hot on his tail including Bailey Matera, Jarrod Garlett, Matthew Gundry and Tim Stewart.

It was yet another terrific season for the entire South Fremantle colts team, though, coached by Arthur Maskos.

The Bulldogs had won the last two WAFL colts premierships and despite starting off with a Round 1 loss to Claremont, went on to win the next three games before losses to eventual preliminary finalist Subiaco and an East Fremantle that was to just miss the top-four come the end of the season.

The Bulldogs then won a couple of games on the trot before again losing to Claremont in Round 10 to only be sitting on a 5-4 record after Round 10.

However, from there the Bulldogs won three games on the trot before losing to Perth in Round 15, and then going on to not lose another game going on an eight-match winning streak all the way to the grand final after beating Claremont in the second semi-final at Claremont Oval by 23 points.

South Fremantle was looking at a third straight colts premiership, but Claremont proved too good in the grand final winning by six points in a thriller at Subiaco's Patersons Stadium.

It was still an outstanding season by the South Fremantle colts, though, and that was recognised at the Dave Ingraham Memorial Medal count.

Dragovich didn’t play in the 2012 premiership side, but was outstanding right throughout 2013 for the Bulldogs colts to end up a deserved fairest and best winner having averaged over 20 possessions and three tackles a game throughout the campaign.

The 17-year-old Matera was runner-up in the count to Dragovich and that was great recognition for his season as well that saw average 19 disposals while also being lively around goals booting 17 majors for the season. He was also named the Most Consistent Player for the season.

Garlett also had a tremendous season with the Bulldogs missing just the one match along the way and finishing up averaging 15 possessions a game, laying plenty of tackles and kicking 13 goals also.

He was rewarded by receiving both the Collard Family Award and the Most Improved Player Award on the night as recognition of the hard work he put in after not being part of the 2012 premiership side.

Stewart was another to come in for the first time in the colts in 2013 and make an immediate impact. He was named the Best First Year Player despite playing just the 15 matches during the season, but he averaged 21 possessions a game as one of the Bulldogs' prime movers.

Other award winners on the night included Mitchell Banks being named Best Clubman, Brad McPhail the Best Team Man, Matthew Gundry the Coaches Award and Brandon Rhodes the Past Players & Officials Award.

Ben Sokol was the colts leading goalkicker for 2013 finishing with 28 and was closely followed by Matthew Ah Siu with 27, Willie Rioli 27, Jermaine Lewis 21 and Cameron McCarthy 20.

While Sokol, Dylan Main, Jarrod Pickett, Blaine Johnson, Tom Vandeleur and Cameron McCarthy didn’t feature highly in the awards because they didn’t play in enough games, all were key players in the West Australian campaign at the National 18s Championships.

Meanwhile, Sokol, McCarthy, Johnson and Dragovich were all named in the WAFL colts team of the year with the half-forward line made up of three South Fremantle players – Sokol, McCarthy and Johnson.

SOUTH FREMANTLE COLTS AWARD WINNERS

Dave Ingraham Memorial Medal: Jacob Dragovich

Runner-up Fairest and Best: Bailey Matera

Collard Family Award: Jarrod Garlett

Best First Year Player: Tim Stewart

Best Clubman: Mitchell Banks

Most Consistent: Bailey Matera

Best Team Man: Brad McPhail

Most Improved: Jarrod Garlett

Coaches Award: Matthew Gundry

Past Players & Officials Award: Brandon Rhodes

By Chris Pike