3 minute read
West Coast ruckman Nic Naitanui was the runaway winner of the club's best and fairest award, easily beating midfielders Dom Sheed and Andrew Gaff.
Nic Naitanui's remarkable comeback from two knee reconstructions has been further recognised with his second straight best and fairest award at West Coast.
Naitanui was the runaway winner of the John Worsfold medal on Wednesday night, with the 31-year-old polling 200 votes to easily beat midfielders Dom Sheed (160) and Andrew Gaff (149).
Jack Redden (137) and forward Jack Darling (136) rounded out the top five.
Naitanui's hot form was one of the rare shining lights of a disappointing West Coast season in which the club missed the finals for the first time since 2014.
There were big concerns about whether Naitanui would ever be able to regain top form after undergoing knee reconstructions in 2016 and 2018.
But the 205-game veteran was able to take his game to a new level over the past two seasons, winning All-Australian honours in 2020 and 2021.
This year, Naitanui averaged career highs in disposals (15.23), contested possessions (12.41) and clearances (7.18).
He also averaged 31.2 hitouts per game.
Under the John Worsfold-medal voting system, four members of the match committee rated each player on a scale of 0-3 for a maximum of 12 votes in any single game.
Naitanui polled the maximum seven times and double figures on another seven occasions to underline his outstanding season.
He joins Guy McKenna (1989, 1999), Glen Jakovich (1993, 1994, 1995, 2000), Ben Cousins (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005), Chris Judd (2004, 2006), Darren Glass (2007, 2009, 2011), Luke Shuey (2016, 2019) and Elliot Yeo (2017, 2018) as players to have won the award more than once.
In doing so, he also became the first ruckman in club history to achieve the feat.
JOHN WORSFOLD MEDAL TOP 10:
Nic Naitanui (200 votes)
Dom Sheed (160)
Andrew Gaff (149)
Jack Redden (137)
Jack Darling (136)
Tim Kelly (129)
Jamie Cripps (128)
Tom Barrass (123)
Tom Cole (119)
Oscar Allen (113)