Congratulations to our 2024 Best and Fairest winners: Isaac Thompson for the Seniors, Sian Beeton for the Women's team and joint winners in the Reserves Sam Bannister & Matthew Bennett.
Men - Seniors
Isaac Thompson has had another outstanding year, securing the Sharks senior Best & Fairest award for the second consecutive time. With a total of 80 votes, the star midfielder claimed the top honour, while Hamish Leedham finished as runner-up with 60 votes.
Isaac Thompson
Isaac, who received votes in 12 of the 16 games, is the first player to achieve back-to-back Best & Fairest wins since Dan Withers did so in 2016 and 2017.
He joins an elite group becoming the 11th player to win the award multiple times since the club's reformation in 1980. The 2019 senior premiership player is now just one win away from joining Bruce Donnelly and Jake Pearce as the only players to have won the Best & Fairest three times.
Hamish also had a great year; despite missing several games due to injury, he still managed to claim the runner-up award for the second year in a row—the first time this has happened in the history of the senior B&F counts.
Jakob Laskey had an excellent first year at the club finishing in 3rd position with 53 votes.
Others to poll well were key forward Archie Wilkinson 41 votes, and key backs Jacob Boyd and Tyson Miller rounding out the top 6 with 40 & 33 votes respectively.
Isaac Thompson
Women - Seniors
Sian Beeton has enjoyed another terrific year, polling in 9 of the 11 games, to win the 2024 best and fairest and in doing so becoming the first Lady Shark dual winner. Sian polled 49 votes just two ahead of runner up Jessica Murphy, who also enjoyed an excellent year, on 47 votes.
Sian Beeton
Sian, who also has two Sharks runner-up awards to her credit, has now finished in the top two in each of the four seasons since the team was established in 2021.
The count ended in dramatic fashion, with Jessica polling 4 votes on the first card of the final game, bringing her within 2 votes of Sian. However, neither Sian nor Jessica polled on the last card, allowing Sian to maintain her lead and secure the victory.
In her third year at the club, Jessica also earned votes in 9 out of her 11 games, marking a significant improvement after never finishing in the top ten before. Coming so close to winning Jessica should be very proud of herself.
First-year players Charlie Giddins and Georgia Rowley also shone, finishing with 44 and 41 votes respectively. Siofra Clarke, with 39 votes, and association leading goal kicker Narine Maurangi, with 29 votes, completed the top six.
Sian Beeton
Men - Reserves
Sam Bannister and Matthew Bennett have shared the Reserves Best and Fairest award after a thrilling conclusion to the 2024 count.
Sam Bannister | Matthew Bennett
Going into the final game of the season the lead was held by Aidan Collins, who played the last 8 games of the season in the senior team, 6 votes ahead of both Matthew Bennett and Sam Bannister.
Aidan had played just the 5 games & had polled a remarkable 44 votes out of a possible 50 votes.
In the last game both Sam & Matty polled 8 votes from the two vote cards to finish joint winners on 46 votes.
This was the first tied result for the reserves since Craig Jenkins & Mathew Cornish shared the award in 1997. It’s also only the third time the reserves award has been shared. Back in 1988 Paul James, Bruce Burr & Mark Miller finished in a three way tie.
For Matty, who was last years runner-up, it was his second win following his victory in 2019. He becomes just the 5th player to be a multiple reserves best and fairest winner.
Sam, despite playing half the season in the seniors, polled in all of the 7 games he played in. The 2019 senior premiership player was the captain in his first year in the two’s and certainly led by example in each of the games he played.
Despite losing the lead in the last game Aidan held onto the runners up position. It was his 3rd runner up award for the Sharks, with the others being achieved in 2017/18.
Others to poll well were back-man Travis Praciak with 35, utility Jack Beatty 34 & key forward Andrew Whitmore 33 votes.
Sam Bannister
Matthew Bennett
