Dignan’s move is a winner
JAKE Dignan’s decision to uproot his family from Victoria and relocate to Tugun on the Gold Coast has turned out to be a worthwhile exercise.
The 30-year-old originally from Ballarat capped an outstanding season with Palm Beach-Currumbin by being named Joe Grant Medal winner for the player adjudged best-on-ground in the QAFL grand final on Saturday.
Dignan was one of many stars for the Lions as they avenged last season’s grand final loss to Labrador with an impressive 14.20 (104) to 7.9 (51) victory at Wally Fankhauser Reserve.
Yet Dignan was somewhat of a reluctant recipient of the prestige award, saying it could have gone to any one of his teammates.
As he said there were a lot o Lions in the que for the award.
“All three of our finals we played everyone contributed pretty evenly across the board and there was no real standout,” Dignan said.
“It was just phenomenal the way we responded.
“We were all fantastic and we all had one aim.”
For Dignan it was yet another piece of individual silverware to add to an impressive career honours haul.
Dignan played with the Northern Territory Thunder from 2009 to 2012 and won the Grant Medal in the 2011 NEAFL North grand final in a side that included luminaries such as Andrew McLeod, Jason Roe and Cameron Ilett.
In 2013 Dignan returned to Victoria to play for Mooroopna, then in 2014 he switched to Portland where he won another best and fairest.
“I decided to come to the Coast because of the lifestyle thing and also that I have a young family,” Dignan said.
Dignan is married to Carla and the couple have a son Harry and twin daughters Ivy and Siennba.
“I was happy to have a year off in 2016 but I started getting itchy feet,” Dignan said.