REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday October 4, 2007

POWERHOUSE Titans forwards Luke “Bull” Bailey and Anthony “Boof” Laffranchi created history, named joint winners of the inaugural Paul Broughton Medal at the club’s gala awards dinner at Royal Pines.

In a shock result, coaching staff could not split the pack leaders. Both players paid tribute to each other, saying they felt privileged to share the prestigious honour.

“It’s tremendous to receive this award – but to get it with Laffranchi is just great,” said coskipper Bailey. “He (Laffranchi) has been a great worker off and on the field … I think there are representative honours just around the corner.”

Laffranchi returned the compliment, agreeing it was “a great honour to share the medal”. “It would have been pretty hard to split us.”

Led by head coach John Cartwright, the judging panel of football manager Scott Sattler, and assistant coaches Trevor Gillmeister and Steve Murphy, applied a 3-2-1 points system for each match.

Bailey and Laffranchi finished on 19 points, ahead of backrower Mark Minichiello (17) and halfback Scott Prince (12).

“I believe Luke Bailey and Anthony Laffranchi were two of the biggest workers in the entire competition this year,” said Titans managing director Michael Searle.

“It is a great result.” Laffranchi was the clear leader in the polling for the first two thirds of the season, before a knee injury sidelined him and enabled Bailey to catch up. Heading into the final game against Melbourne, Bailey was three points clear but a man of the match performance from Laffranchi reeled him in.