Around the region:

Local medallist

Echuca’s Ollie Wines has claimed the 2021 Brownlow Medal in a thrilling vote count.

In the final round, Wines pulled away from Marcus Bontempelli to finish on 36 votes and cement himself as Port Adelaide, and Echuca’s, first Brownlow Medallist.

His former Echuca Football Club junior teammate Clayton Oliver finished in the top three with 31 votes following a sensational season for Melbourne.

Wines’ effort on the AFL's night of nights is the joint highest Brownlow tally in the 3-2-1 format alongside Dustin Martin in a dominant showing.

The win bookends a career-best year for Wines, who averaged 32 touches and was a driving influence in the Port engine room as they made this years Preliminary Final.

Wines thanked Port Adelaide and the town of Echuca who he is "sure is up and about" after the win.

Garage blaze

A garage at a Shepparton property was destroyed in a fire last week.

When firefighters arrived at the Runge

St house shortly before 11am, smoke filled the air.

It took the 12 firefighters about five minutes to control the blaze in the garage at the rear of the property.

The garage was destroyed and a man was taken to hospital by ambulance with superficial burns.

Shepparton police Sergeant Josh McCabe said a resident was doing some mechanical work in the garage when there was a small explosion and the fire started.

The man was treated for burns by ambulance officers at the scene before being taken to hospital.

Firefighters managed to contain the fire to the garage, with some minor exposure damage to a nearby boat and the neighbour’s trees.

Four fire trucks, three police vehicles, one ambulance and a mobile intensive care ambulance unit attended the blaze.

The street was blocked off to allow firefighters to fight the blaze.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Season over

Cobram Roar players will not take to the field again in 2021 after the Albury

Wodonga Football Association brought its season to an end last week.

There has been plenty of uncertainty on whether play would resume after action across each grade had been suspended for the past month due to COVID-19 restrictions.

But the league and club presidents opted to call time on the season.

‘‘The AWFA executive and club presidents met tonight and have made the difficult decision to cancel all football competitions for the 2021 season,’’ a statement read.

‘‘This decision was reached with much consultation will all clubs, unfortunately the Victorian Public Health Orders currently released today has made this decision for us.’’

AWFA president Mark Leman indicated that champions would be named in each grade, but divulged individual honours would not be recognised.

The Roar’s senior women outfit came agonisingly close to title success after ending the season in second spot on the division two ladder by a single point.

Cobram’s under-13 boys finished second, while the under-17 boys and under15 girls both ended the year in fifth spot.