Juniors celebrated
For the second year in a row, Rupanyup’s Connor Weidemann and Pimpinio’s Thalia Thompson are top of the board in the Horsham District Football Netball League junior vote counts.
With 34 votes, Weidemann won under-17 football best-and-fairest and with 24 votes, Pimpinio’s Fredrick Frew was runner-up. The pair was joint under-17 best-and-fairest winners in 2021.
Rupanyup under-17 footballers played 12 games in the 2022 season and Weidemann polled best on ground in 11 rounds.
Thompson polled 35 votes to win 17-and-under netball best-and-fairest, followed by Kalkee’s Olivia Brilliant on 27 votes. In 2021, Thompson was 17-and-under best-and-fairest and Brilliant was runner-up.
With nine best-on-court efforts and four rounds of two votes, Thompson only missed three rounds where she did not receive any votes.
Due to forfeits and several clubs not fielding all junior sides in 2022, a ratio system was applied to the vote calculations in under-17 football, 17-and-under netball, and 13-and-under netball.
The system averages the number of votes received by a player with the total number of games their team was eligible to play during the season.
Weidemann’s ratio was 2.83 and Frew’s, 2.18. Thompson’s ratio was 2.19 and Brilliant’s was 1.8.
The vote count was conducted online on Monday and by the end of the night, Rupanyup players had come away with three best-and-fairest wins.
In 15-and-under netball, Rupanyup’s Adelle Weidemann won best-and-fairest and in under14 football Riley Downer won best-and-fairest. Weidemann polled 37 votes to come away with the win. Joint runners-up were Ada Binney of Pimpinio and Nekeisha Bastin of Jeparit-rainbow, with 25 votes. Downer won with 38 votes, followed closely by Harrow-balmoral’s Archer Cameron on 35 votes.
Isla Hiscock, of Noradjuha-quantong, won 13-and-under netball best-and-fairest with 37 votes and a ratio of 2.31.
Runner-up best-and-fairest was Natimuk United’s Emma Uebergang with 35 votes and a 2.19 ratio.