Railways’ Matt Palfrey claims clean sweep of Great Southern Football League’s major awards

Railways’ Matt Palfrey completed a clean sweep of the Great Southern Football’s major awards for the 2022 season on Thursday night.

Palfrey was a joint winner of the prestigious Kleemann Medal while also receiving the GSFL Coaches’ Player of the Year Award and the Albany Advertiser Footballer of the Year Award.

Palfrey polled eight votes in the final round to claim the GSFL Coaches’ Player of the Year title in convincing fashion.

He recorded an impressive 76 votes to finish a clear winner over Mt Barker’s Zach Jackson on 62 votes and Tigers teammate Ryan Davies (49 votes).

Denmark-Walpole forward Tyler Stone finished in fourth place with 46 votes, just ahead of Albany pair Fraser Eaton and Kane Pinney, who each polled 43 votes.

In the Albany Advertiser Footballer of the Year voting, both Jackson and Palfrey polled two votes in the final round but it was Palfrey who took out the media honour.

He collected 20 votes to edge out Jackson (18) and Davies (14) while Pinney (13) and Sharks’ Brett Peake (10) rounded out the top five.

Jackson received the Sean Plaisted trophy as the GSFL’s leading goal kicker after a season that yielded 63 goals.

Peake followed close behind, finishing with a season tally of 55 goals while Palfrey had 53 majors.

Tigers midfielder Anthony Coyne claimed the Charlie Punch Medal as the best and fairest player in the reserves competition, finishing on 19 votes to beat Royals’ Cameron Lazar and Sharks’ Ashley Sanders, who both had 14 votes.

Coyne had 17 votes at the end of round 10 and polled only two votes in the final five games but best-on-ground performances in round two, round three, round four, round eight and round nine helped secure the medal.

Jaiden Alison won the reserves leading goal-kicker trophy with 49 goals in 2022.

Tony Lazar was recognised for his great contribution to the league with the volunteer of the year award.

Meanwhile, Darren Bennett was recognised as the umpire of the year.

The GSFL Team of the Year was also announced at the presentations.