Thrilling Kleemann Medal vote count ends in tie between Railways’ Matt Palfrey and Mt Barker’s Zach Jackson

After a season in which they have been hard to split, Railways’ Matt Palfrey and Mt Barker’s Zach Jackson shared the Great Southern Football League’s top individual honour on Thursday night. In a thrilling Kleemann Medal count at Retravision Stadium, little separated the fancied pair and it came down to the final round of voting. Jackson held a slender two-vote advantage going into round 15 and he polled one vote in the Bulls’ victory over North Albany while Palfrey was adjudged best afield as the Tigers beat Albany. The pair finished locked together on 21 votes to be joint winners of the 2022 Kleemann Medal. Palfrey, a former WAFL forward, is now a dual Kleemann medallist but on both occasions has tied for the honour. He was a joint winner in 2020 with teammate Kane Shephard. Jackson claimed his first medal, capping a terrific debut season in the GSFL in which he also won the leading goal-kicker award. He is the older brother of Melbourne Demons young gun Luke Jackson. After five rounds of voting Jackson and Palfrey were tied on nine votes ahead of last year’s winner Cameron Allison. Palfrey edged ahead by the completion of round 10 to narrowly shade Jackson by a single vote. It set up for an outstanding finish to the count in the final five rounds and fittingly they shared the top honour. Bulls’ Joel Gray (13 votes), former winner Shephard (11) the Bulls’ David Stone (10) and Albany’s Kane Pinney (10) rounded out the top six in this year’s medal voting. 2022 Kleemann Medal Top 10 21 votes: Matt Palfrey (Railways) & Zach Jackson (Mt Barker) 13: Joel Gray (Mt Barker) 11: Kane Shephard (Railways) 10: David Stone (Mt Barker) Kane Pinney (Albany) 9: Brett Peake (Albany) Sam Lehmann (Mt Barker) 7: David Parker (Royals) Nathan Crudeli (North Albany)