Historic win for Mardell
DERWENT’S Joshua Mardell and DiamondBacks’ Emily Donovan were the toast of Tasmanian hockey on Saturday night as they claimed their respective Premier League player of the year awards.
Mardell’s victory was the most comprehensive since the turn of the century, with the midfielder more than doubling the vote tally of his nearest rival.
Mardell’s 27 votes from fourteen matches was fifteen votes clear of OHA’s Jo Murphy and left the UK- born Mardell completely shocked at the result.
It also came after his team, Derwent, suffered a penalty shootout loss to end their season, while the women’s side he coaches, North- West Graduates, were also knocked out 2- 1.
“I was very surprised and wasn’t expecting it at all. It was actually a weird, surreal feeling as I’m not the kind of player that usually gets a look at for these kinds of awards,” Mardell said.
“Obviously the day was a massive disappointment for me personally before the awards night and that feeling won’t go away until the start of pre- s eason, but knowing that the indiv i d u a l work I put in throughout the year paid off was very great.”
Mardell was also recently announced as the Southern Satellite coach of
Hockey Tasmania’s inaugural Tassie Tigers Academy, to be headed by Luke Doerner, and is looking forward to imparting his k n o w l e d g e on others. “I’m very excited to get started with the Academy. I really want to drive the improvement of hockey in the state and hopefully the Academy is the first step to doing that,” Mardell added.
It was a much closer count in the women’s competition, with Donovan also scoring 27 votes to finish four clear of North- West’s Grace Calvert and teammate Philly Bridley.
Donovan was out to dinner for her daughter’s birthday, following DiamondBacks’ incredible preliminary final victory when news came through via text of her thrilling win.
“It is a great honour, however I could not be the player I am without my team, coaching staff and family,” Donovan said, with her focus shifting from individual accolades to chasing team success.
“I was on the bench in my younger days in a winning Premier League title and would really love to be out on the field and experience a premiership win.”
“If we can continue working together and playing our game, we can get the job done on Saturday.”
Both men’s and women’s Premier League grand finals will be streamed live and exclusive to Mercury subscribers via the website.