Essendon VFL held its 2017 Best and Fairest awards night on Wednesday, September 27th, at the Park, on Albert Park Lake.
Heath Hocking rounded out his final season at the Club by winning Essendon VFL’s best and fairest award, the R.A Freeman Medal.
He polled 217 votes to finish ahead of first year player Kobe Mutch (213 votes) and Captain, Nick O’Brien (210 votes).
Nick Hind received the Jack Feain Best Clubman Award. Hind was recruited midway through the 2016 season and played 15 games for the Bombers this year.
James Peters was named the Dons Best First year Player. The small forward made his debut in round four against Port Melbourne, where he kicked one goal and laid three tackles.
Alex Boyse was the Leading Goal Kicker for the Bombers this season, booting 31 goals.
Boyse’s best appearance in front of goal came in the Dreamtime game against Richmond, where he booted five majors.
Essendon Volunteer, Wayne Wunhym, was awarded the Stevens Family Most Valuable Staff Member Award.
The VFL Property Manager has worked at the Club as a volunteer since 2013 and for the last two years has been the VFL Head of Property.
Best and Fairest: Final leader board
Voting system: Four Essendon coaches rank each players’ performance from zero to five. The maximum votes a player can receive per round is 20.
1 – Heath Hocking (217)
2 – Kobe Mutch (213)
3 – Nick O’Brien (210)
4 – Craig Bird (199)
Dylan Clarke (199)
6 – Alex Boyse (197)
7 – Josh Begley (182)
8 – Kyle Langford (180)
9 – Nick Hind (178)
10 – Mason Redman (177)
