McAuley surprises Crathern medallist
FOR the second season in a row, the Crathern Medallist for best and fairest player in AFL Cairns has not claimed his club best and fairest outright.
Damien Roe, the 2016 Crathern Medallist, had to share last year’s Centrals Trinity Beach Bulldogs best and fairest award with Jayden Holt but it was Tim McAuley who caused the upset this year.
Bulldogs midfielder Hugh Nicholson earned the 2017 Crathern Medal with 22 votes but had to settle for second place at club level after McAuley received the best and fairest.
In his first season in the Far North, McAuley (right), who claimed the Sunraysia Football League’s best and fairest player with South Mildura in 2015, was consistent all season for the Bulldogs, winning plenty of contest footy.
McAuley finished 13th in Crathern Medal voting with nine, 13 votes behind Nicholson.
At Fretwell Park, reliable defender David Welch was rewarded for an outstanding season with South Cairns, claiming their highest honour.
The undersized backman was selected in the Cairns Post Team of the Year and beat out eye-catching midfielders James Dixon and Zac Ewer
Cutters president Peter Kennedy said it was an exciting count.
“Ewer led until the final round of the season but David scored votes in the last game to get him home,” Kennedy said.
“It was great to see David win.”
Hardworking on-baller Dylan Mcconachy won Cairns Saints best and fairest prize after a consistent season at Griffiths Park.
Joel Newman, who missed the first half of the season after having ankle surgery, finished runner-up to Mcconachy after a strong finish to the season down back for Saints.
Meanwhile, Tommy Mooka won Pyramid Power’s best and fairest in a season that saw them win their first final in the competition. AUSTRALIAN Sally Fitzgibbons is the last surfer ranked in the world’s top four left standing at the Cascais Pro in Portugal in a major boost to her bid to win a maiden world surfing crown. In an extraordinary sequence of events, both injured Australian defending champion Tyler Wright and six-time titleholder Steph Gilmore were ousted in the second round of the World Tour event, with world No.2 and American Courtney Conlogue sent packing in round four. Now Fitzgibbons is the only top four surfer in the quarter-finals of the third-last event of the 2017 world tour, which is expected to restart tomorrow. “I just felt really out of rhythm,” Conlogue said after her shock exit in Portugal.
Lahiri saves day
A LONG and demoralising day at the Presidents Cup for the International golf team ended with Anirban Lahiri making two clutch birdies in a four-balls match that spared his team the indignity of watching the Americans celebrate another victory – with one day still to play. From the sun rising over the Manhattan skyline until the chill of twilight at Liberty National, the Americans poured it on with such frightening force that they were one match away from clinching the cup a day early. The International team went 13 straight matches without winning until Lahiri and Si Woo Kim won on the 18th hole. “They got a standing ovation when they walked in our team room,” International captain Nick Price said with a smile. “First time we had seen a match go our way for a long time.”