Race to the Magarey Medal - the washup

After 10 gruelling weeks, Messenger reporter Jai Bednall finally has the chance to pick over the bones of last night’s who Magarey Medal count.
After pumping up Jade Sheedy all season, Bednall has a good hard look in the mirror and asks himself the hard questions about where it all went wrong.

IT was a tale of two Double Blues at the Magarey Medal count last night Luke Crane shocked the crowd by virtually leading all night, while pre-count favourite, and yes my tip for the award, Jade Sheedy was nowhere to be seen.

Crane, runner-up last year to James Allan, had 13 votes in the first seven rounds and led all night except for a brief moment at the end of round 19 when South youngster James Boyd took the lead.

What an upset that would have been if he had held on for victory.

No disrespect to Boof, he’s a great player, but I’m talking a Shane Woewodin over Anthony Koutoufides in the 2000 Brownlow kind of upset.

But it didn’t happen because Crane, who averaged more than 22 touches, as-well-as kicking 20 goals this year, regained the lead the next round with a best-on-ground effort against Port.

So what happened to my man Sheedy who polled in just three games and finished with eight votes?

Was he robbed or was I just way off the mark?

Consider the following:

Round Two: 30 possessions in win over Central District no votes.
Round Four: 35 possessions in win over South no votes.
Round Seven: 32 possessions in win over West no votes.
Round 17: 34 possessions in win over Central District no votes
Round 18: 41 possessions in win over Eagles no votes
Round 22: 40 possessions in win over South no votes

Can you believe it? Two 40-possession games without a single vote?

Anyway, after my second and third helpings of humble pie last night I listened to Sturt coach Rick Macgowan being interviewed on ABC radio.

He reasoned that Crane polled higher because he plays a more eye-catching style of game, where as Sheedy generally stays on the defensive side of the pack.

The stats back up Rick’s argument.

In rounds four (24 touches, two goals), seven (23 touches, two goals) and 22 (21 touches, two goals), Crane didn’t have a mountain of possessions, but he polled a total of seven votes because he was among the goal-kickers.

Another who didn’t poll as well as expected was Eagles skipper Mark McKenzie who finished in eighth place with 13 votes.

Still can’t figure out how he lost out on the three votes to Boyd in the Eagles win over South in round 19.

McKenzie absolutely towelled up the Panthers in that game.

Overall, 13 of the top 20 votegetters last night were in the final top 20 of the Race to the Magarey rankings.

Apologies to Central Districts’ Ryan Williams (13 votes) and Sturt’s Tristan Gum (11 votes) who didn’t get a mention in the rankings all year but polled extremely well.

Others who got no love from the men in white were Leigh Treeby (Eagles Six votes), Brant Chamber (Sturt Five votes), Scott McGlone (Sturt Four votes),
Matt Slade (Central Six votes), Luke Panozzo (Glenelg Three votes), Trevor Cranston (Glenelg Three votes), Rhys Archard (North Two votes).

Hey, there’s always next year.