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AFLW 2025 Awards

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Just the second unanimous AFLW Rising Star winner (the first being Chloe Molloy):




2025 Telstra AFLW Rising Star voting​

50 votes: Zippy Fish (Sydney)
23 votes: Poppy Scholz (Carlton)
23 votes: Lucia Painter (West Coast)
19 votes: Havana Harris (Gold Coast)
15 votes: Sophie McKay (Carlton)
 

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Prespakis needs to get consecutive BOGs in the final two rounds and hope Riddell doesn't poll in the final round to be in with a sniff.

She was awesome in the final two rounds... should get 5/6 at least.
 
End of the night, the right winner won.

It's weird that Riddell polled three votes when she was more entitled for 0-2 votes, yet she twice failed to poll a single vote when she was clearly BOG. In the end it was sort of balanced out so I'm glad the deserving winner was able to salute.

Garner is the one who under polled, though. Five times she failed to poll when I had her polling either two or three.
 

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W Best and Fairest leaderboard​

23 votes: Ash Riddell (North Melbourne)
20 votes: Georgie Prespakis (Geelong)
18 votes: Tyla Hanks (Melbourne)
17 votes: Ella Roberts (West Coast)
15 votes: Laura Gardiner (Sydney)
15 votes: Jasmine Garner (North Melbourne)
13 votes: Kiara Bowers (Fremantle)
13 votes: Georgia Nanscawen (Essendon)
12 votes: Matilda Scholz (Port Adelaide)
 
Mark of the Year:


Not for the first time, 2x MOTY winner Tayla Harris took the 3 best speckies of the year but was pipped by a strong back-with-the-flighter. Hosking's didn't hold up as well with each subsequent replay imo.

Goal of the Year:


And Montana Ham could've had the 3 best goals of the year if she finished off her work more consistently.
 
Well done to Riddell, can't say the same for the umps. I used to think it's unique that our comps have them voting on the player of the season but it's beyond clear it should be an antiquated relic of the past.

Garner is going to have had a very decorated career when she eventually retires, with (at least) one incredible omission...
 
My votes (in the white boxes) vs the umpires' votes (in green text):

wawards1c.png

So some players polled in near identical fashion, some took different routes to get similar results, and some were just screwed over (as usual in Garner's case).

It is very rare for the leading disposal-getter of a top 3 club to poll as poorly as Ally Anderson did this year. And it's not like she was Brisbane's no.1 for disposals by a whisker, either.
 
2 long overdue improvements for next year.

1) Umpires must spend time looking at the stats sheet before deciding on their votes. (What is with the "we'll have conversations with the umpires to see what they prefer" hogwash? To paraphrase the great Ebony Antonio, show some leadership!)

2) Trim down the AA selection panel and add somebody who has actually been an elite defender. You need more than just Erin Phillips and Kate McCarthy for whom, let's be honest, defence has always been an afterthought. You don't need five journos (Gemma Bastiani, Jason Bennett, Eliza Reilly, Michael Whiting and Megan Waters).

One other thing: fire the person who came up with the moving stage, and fire its operator!
 

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AFLW Players’ Most Valuable Player, presented by KPMG
  1. Jasmine Garner
  2. Ashleigh Riddell
  3. Ella Roberts
  4. Kate Hore
  5. Georgie Prespakis
2nd time Riddell has finished 2nd (other time was in 2022 S6 behind Bates). Roberts finishes 3rd for the 2nd year in a row. It was also Hore's 2nd time (at least) finishing 4th (other confirmed time was 2023).

Most Courageous, presented by Tackle Your Feelings
  1. Kiara Bowers
  2. Isabel Dawes
  3. Jessica Rentsch
  4. Rylie Wilcox
  5. Eliza McNamara
I believe Bowers is the first person to give birth to a human baby and then go on to win the Most Courageous award.

Best Captain, presented by Chartered Accountants
  1. Jasmine Garner
  2. Kate Hore
  3. Abbie McKay
  4. Breanna Koenen
  5. Ebony Marinoff
At least the 4th consecutive season Koenen has finished in the 4th-5th range.

Best First-Year Player, presented by P3 Recovery
  1. Zippy Fish
  2. Poppy Scholz
  3. Havana Harris
  4. Lucia Painter
  5. Ash Centra
Fish is the first winner of both the Rising Star and Best First-Year Player since Madison Prespakis in 2019 (Chloe Molloy also won both in 2018).
 
Top 10 Leaderboard
1st: Aisling McCarthy - 221 votes
2nd: Gabby Newton - 215 votes
3rd: Kiara Bowers - 206 votes
4th: Mim Strom - 198 votes
5th: Emma O'Driscoll - 185 votes
6th: Hayley Miller - 166 votes
7th: Indi Strom - 144 votes
8th: Laura Pugh - 143 votes
9th: Ash Brazill - 137 votes
10th: Megan Kauffman - 136 votes

And there you have it, an Irish player finally wins a club B&F.

Preeeetty much a true reflection of where McCarthy sits in the pantheon of Gaelic recruits, having built up to this point with three runner-ups (2 at WCE, 1 at Frem) and a 4th-place at the Bulldogs.

Not to mention her 8th-place finish in this year's Teen Wolf Medal!
 
FULL VOTES
12 – Eilish Sheerin, North Melbourne: 3333
6 – Ash Riddell, North Melbourne: 2211
5 – Jasmine Garner, North Melbourne: 221
1 – Isabel Dawes, Brisbane: 1

At 33y 55d, Sheerin becomes the second-oldest winner of the award. Slightly younger than Erin Phillips in 2019 (33y 316d), slightly older than Kate Lutkins in 2021 (32y 321d).

And just quietly, they keep bringing Phillips back every year to present awards. 10 seasons in the book. Just name a medal after her already ffs. Downright insulting at this point.
 
2025 Richmond AFLW Best and Fairest Results
1st: Monique Conti (25 votes)
2nd: Ellie McKenzie (22 votes)
3rd: Libby Graham (14 votes)
Eq-4th: Ally Dallaway, Katie Brennan (12 votes)
Eq-6th: Grace Egan, Laura McClelland, Bec Miller, Sarah Hosking (11 votes)

Conti's 8th club B&F win (1 for the Bulldogs, 7 for Richmond). All in a row.

McKenzie finishes runner-up, breaking from the 1-2 combo Conti and Sheerin had for the past 3 years.

Graham's only previous top 10 finish was in 2023 (equal 10th).

Egan's fourth consecutive top 6 finish at Richmond.
 
That's a streak that's never going to be broken I reckon - sure she's been in some poor teams and is head and shoulders above them but 8 in a row is still huge. Wonder when someone will beat her at Richmond.
 
That's a streak that's never going to be broken I reckon - sure she's been in some poor teams and is head and shoulders above them but 8 in a row is still huge. Wonder when someone will beat her at Richmond.

McKenzie could've gone close this year if she didn't miss the last two games.
 

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AFLW 2025 Awards

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