GSFL 2024: Railways star Ryley Valli honoured to join club greats after landslide 2024 Kleemann Medal win

Polished Railways midfielder Ryley Valli was honoured to join the club’s long list of H.B. Kleemann Medal winners after becoming the eighth Tiger to be named the Great Southern Football League fairest and best player in the past decade. Valli enjoyed a dominant return to Tigerland after a stint at Claremont and was the favourite to clinch the 68th edition of the Kleemann Medal, before going on to beat closest rival and big-bodied Albany star Bailey Taylor by 10 votes. The 20-year-old polled a staggering seven best-on-ground performances across 14 home-and-away games, with five coming in the last six rounds where he won 17 out of a possible 18 votes to win the GSFL’s highest individual accolade. At the count held at Retravision Stadium on Monday evening, Valli was nowhere to be seen on the leaderboard after five rounds, with Taylor leading all vote-getters with nine. By round 10, Valli had powered his way into the equal second alongside Shark Isaac Baum, the pair still trailing Taylor who led with 14 votes. Valli finished the runaway winner in the end ahead of Taylor while Baum finished third with 14 votes, Royals midfielder Zak Mola enjoyed a strong season to be fourth with 13 votes and teammate Declan McNamara (12 votes) rounded out the top five. Valli said he was privileged to play alongside some of the club’s past medallists including Kane Shephard and Joel Want and share the award with some of the league greats. “I think we’ve probably got three or four current players who have won a Kleemann and a couple of others who have left in recent times so it’s nice to join those boys,” Valli said. “There’s some pretty good players who have won the award in the past and it’s good to join that list and it’s a good reward for the season. “I thought I’d be up there and a lot of people told me I would win but you never really know until the night.” His sensational season was further recognised by being named the Albany Advertiser footballer of the year and the coaches player of the year in his first season back in the GSFL since returning from a stint at Claremont. “So I think that’s probably one of my proudest awards, to be honest.” A turf apprentice at Albany Golf Club, Valli returned to Tigerland from Claremont this season to rediscover his enjoyment of the game and is in no rush to decide on where he will play his football next year. “Yeah definitely (enjoyed it). As soon as I got back in the preseason I found the love again and really enjoyed coming down every weekend and playing footy and hanging out with the boys,” he said. “I’m not too sure (if I’ll return to Claremont) but I’m doing an apprenticeship, so I probably want to stay to finish that and then I’ll see what happens after that. “But I’m enjoying my time at Railways at the moment.” Reflecting on being awarded three votes on seven occasions, the on-baller attributed his spectacular end to the season to his skills and willingness to work around stoppages. “I think I just probably get to a lot of contests with my fitness and use my skills pretty well around the ground,” he said. “I think if I can have 20 kicks, I’d like to think I’d hit 15 to 20 of them . . . and probably my tackling is pretty good as well. “After copping an ankle injury early in the season I worked my way back to full match fitness and got used to playing with the boys and I think we gelled a bit better as the season got on.” 2024 Kleemann Medal Leaderboard 25: Ryley Valli (RAIL) 15: Bailey Taylor (ALB) 14: Isaac Baum (ALB) 13: Zak Mola (ROY) 12: Declan McNamara (ROY) 10: Bailey Bennett (RAIL) Kane Pinney (ALB) 9: Brayden Parker (ROY) 8: Brent Parsons (MB) 7: Jayden Scott (RAIL) 6: Brock Higgins (ROY) Kaleb Germain (ALB) Reagan Hutchinson (DW) Tyreice Brown (MB) Zach Jackson* (MB)