The Alan Wookey Medal; the award given to the champion player of the Dandenong District Turf 1 season; will be held on Wednesday 14 March, only days before the second standalone grand final.
DDCA reporter NICK CREELY has ran his own medal throughout the season, adopting a 3,2,1 voting system to judge who has been the standout player of the season.
Last year, the Journal correctly tipped association legend Steven Spoljaric to win his fifth Wookey Medal after a stellar 2016/17 season, and once again, Spoljaric is a chance to claim his sixth after a brilliant debut season at his new club, Springvale South.
But it’s the year for Buckley Ridges champ Daniel ‘DJ’ Watson, who has been tipped to win by just one vote from Mordialloc’s star all-rounder Ian Daniel.
DJ’s unbelievable season, which netted him 683 runs and 16 wickets in the home and away season; saw him claim the maximum votes on four occasions, in Round 2 (84 and 4/27), Round 5 (48 and 2/24), Round 7 (130 and 0/25) and Round 10 (73 and 3/62).
Daniel (734 runs and 22 wickets) was equally impressive and played some massive innings, and only just fell short.
Michael Davies from HSD (468 runs and 35 wickets), Spoljaric (423 runs and 26 wickets) and Berwick speedster James Wilcock (152 runs and 34 wickets) rounded out the top five.
TOP 20
Daniel Watson 18 Buckley Ridges
Ian Daniel 17 Mordialloc
Michael Davies 16 HSD
Steven Spoljaric 16 Springvale South
James Wilcock 12 Berwick
Leigh Booth 12 Hallam Kalora Park
Kaushalya Gajasinghe 12 St Mary’s
Jarryd Straker 12 Springvale South
Asfan Thajudeen 9 North Dandenong
Malinga Bandara 9 Springvale South
Jordan Hammond 9 Hallam Kalora Park
Ruwantha Kellepotha 9 St Mary’s
Jarrod Goodes 8 Berwick
Greg Todd 8 Buckley Ridges
Susantha Pradeep 8 Buckley Ridges
Nathan Pilon 7 Berwick
Dinuk Hettiarchchi 7 Dingley
Christo Otto 7 Dingley
Kaushalya Weeraratne 7 HSD
Imran Laghmani 7 Narre Warren
