By JARROD POTTER
WHILE individual acknowledgement isn’t a big deal for the Dandenong Stingrays, a star quartet nonetheless were thrilled to receive extremely high praise at the TAC Cup’s Morrish Medal night.
Beaconsfield’s Bailey Rice (back pocket), Narre Warren’s Gach Nyuon (ruck), Kieran Collins (full back) and Jacob Weitering (centre half back) continued their stellar TAC Cup season with selection in the TAC Cup Team of the Year.
The four Stingrays earned their places in the illustrious line-up after impressive seasons in the competition, helping Dandenong push to second on the ladder and into a preliminary final this weekend.
“It’s a very humbling to be seen as one of the better players in the TAC Cup,” Collins said. “Really honoured to be placed as the full back of the Team of the Year – it’s awesome.”
Weitering and Collins were also presented with their All Australian jumpers after sensational AFL National Championships campaigns with Vic Country alongside Stingrays team-mate Gach Nyuon, who was unable to attend the awards on Sunday night.
“It’s a massive honour,” Weitering said. “It’s good that you get a little bit of reward for a consistent year of football, but at the end of the day we want to win a premiership and we’ve got a few more weeks to go.”
In the Morrish Medal count, captain Lachlan Williams (nine votes) led all Stingrays with Josh Battle (six), Brandon White (six), Harry Prior (four) and Nyuon (four) also atop Dandenong’s list of 19 players who polled on the night.
The stellar quartet will lace up again on Saturday when the Stingrays battle Eastern Ranges in a TAC Cup preliminary final from 11am at Princes Park.
Bunyip’s Tom Papley (eight votes) and Pakenham’s Matt de Bruin (four votes) polled well for the Gippsland Power, which also had two Team of the Year nominees – Ben Ainsworth (forward pocket) and Nash Holmes (interchange).
The Morrish Medal was won by Murray Bushrangers’ midfielder Clayton Oliver on 15 votes ahead of Eastern’s Darcy Crocker and Northern’s Jade Gresham (14 each).
