By JARROD POTTER
ROCKING up to the Southern Football League awards night last week, Keysborough midfielder Geoff Humphreys didn’t expect much more than a good night out … let alone picking up the Division 2 league best and fairest.
Humphreys, 26, from Highett, leapt to the top of the polling in his inaugural SFL Division 2 campaign as the Burra mainstay polled 21 votes to knock off injured team mate Tyson King (15 votes) and Highett’s Jacob Duscher (14 votes).
Called to the podium to pick up his first piece of league silverware, Humphreys could not believe it was his name the umpires thought topped the league this season.
“Pretty surprised to be honest – I didn’t think much of it heading there,” Humphreys said. “Just went along and enjoyed the night with the rest of the crew and then they start reading the votes at round 15.
“They went from and I was on top from then and Tyson (team mate Tyson King) wasn’t going to play any more games, so I knew I had him covered.”
On an individual note, Humphreys was pleased with his season but was disappointed for the team as a whole as the Burra bowed out of the SFL Division 2 finals race in straight sets.
It wasn’t the end to the year they expected, after leading the league for a few rounds at the start of the season and ending second in the home-and-away season.
“Personal year I thought I went ok just apart from going down a couple of times,” Humphreys said. “Niggling injuries and I feel I’ve got a bit of work to do to get back stronger for next year.
“As a team, a pretty disappointing end to the year going out in straight sets – we did all the things right throughout the year but fell away at the preliminary.
“Injuries don’t help us with Kingy and Wilko (Corey Wilkinson) going down and inexperience by the young blokes as well not realising the position we were in.
“A lot of our blokes didn’t realise the position they were in to win a flag and what we had to sacrifice.”
But as a whole the transition from Casey Cardinia to Southern FNL received the thumbs up from Humphreys – as the club is trending upwards for the first time in many years.
“Without a doubt (the move was positive),” Humphreys said.
“Obviously, going off the last five years I’ve been there, the previous four years in Casey Cardinia have always been tough and we were always there abouts, but this has levelled the playing field heading across the board.
“The (SFL) players seem good, and it’s always a tough battle, no matter who you come across – at the end of the day it’s always 22 versus 22.”
He wanted to thank the club for their support, especially president Manny Scata for his hard work behind the scenes – especially getting juniors back to the club.
