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VELOCITY SPORTS NEWS

Another award for Beams

Friday, 2 October, 2009

Dayne Beams closed out a fantastic first season at Collingwood tonight by winning the Harry Collier Trophy as Best First-Year Player.

He also finished equal 16th in the Copeland Trophy - 18th on a countback - as Dane Swan took the coveted Best & Fairest Award for the second year in a row.

In his acceptance speech to a sell-out crowd of 1750 people at Crown Casino, 19-year-old Beams said:  "Thanks for the award.   First of all thanks to my parents who are not here.   My mates back home.   All the boys on table one, all single guys and thanks to the supporters hope we can go one better next year."

Beams received a total of 26 votes from his 18 games under a system in which each player is allocated one vote for each game in which he is selected, and the match committee allocates up to 20 votes for each match according to individual performance.

He finished level on votes with Brad Dick and vice-captain Josh Fraser but was placed behind them because Dick had played 16 games and Fraser 17.

Behind Beams on the vote board were 2008 All-Australian Paul Medhurst (21), Ben Johnson (19), Cameron Wood (19), Sharrod Wellingham (17), Nathan Brown (15), Martin Clarke (14), Shannon Cox (13), Tyson Goldsack (13), Steele Sidebottom (13), Jaxson Barham (7), Brent Macaffer (6), Anthony Corrie (4), Chris Dawes (4), Anthony Rocca (4), Ryan Cook (2), John McCarthy (2), Ben Reid (2), Chris Bryan (1) and Danny Stanley (1).

Swan joined an elite group of Collingwood players who have won back-to-back best-and-fairest awards, accomplished by only 12 men before him including club champions Bob Rose, Murray Weideman, Len Thompson and Nathan Buckley.

The 25-year-old midfielder, who earned his first All Australian jumper in 2009, played all 25 matches and polled votes from the match committee in 17 of them, to win with 57 votes from fellow 2009 All Australian and club captain Nick Maxwell.

Maxwell had the best season of his career and was awarded votes in 18 of his 23 matches to finish with 48 votes and claim the RT Rush Trophy as runner-up, his highest ever finish.
Heath Shaw, who missed four of the first six matches, finished third with 43 votes, also his highest ever placing, having previously finished equal fourth in 2006 and fifth in 2007. He didn't poll his first match committee vote until round nine, but polled in every game bar one (round 14) thereafter, including finals.

Harry O'Brien also polled 43 votes and came fourth - his second-straight top-five finish while 2006 winner Alan Didak was fifth with 41 votes.

Scott Pendlebury was the early pacesetter in the count. He led by one vote from Swan and Josh Fraser after five rounds and polled in eight of the first nine rounds, with Swan taking the lead from Pendlebury by one vote at the halfway mark of the home-and-away season.

Swan's incredible run of form throughout the second half of the season saw him extend his lead, and after 22 rounds he led by 12 votes from Maxwell.
 
Maxwell and Shaw polled in each game of the finals series to be joint recipients of the Bob Rose Trophy for being best player in finals, with Shaw jumping from sixth in the voting after 22 rounds to third after the preliminary final.

It was a huge night for Maxwell, who had finished in the top 10 in the Copeland voting only once before (ninth in 2005), and was 12th in both 2007 and 2008. He also won the Gavin Brown award for leading desire indicators for the third straight year.

O'Brien, 22, a giant success story from the rookie list system, has finished in the top 10 of the Copeland Trophy three times in a row since being permanently elevated to the senior list at the end of 2006. He also won the Best Clubman Award.

Pendlebury, who at 21 already has two top-three Copeland Trophy placings to his name (third in 2007, second in 08) and is club vice-captain, was coming third at the end of the home-and-away rounds but finished sixth after missing two finals through injury.

Veterans Tarkyn Lockyer, Leon Davis, Simon Prestigiacomo and Shane O'Bree rounded out the top 10, while John Anthony won the Coventry Award as the Leading Goal-Kicker, and Ryan Cook won the Joseph Wren Trophy for Best VFL Player.