Preview Dane Swan and the AFLPA Awards (MVP).

[mattys123]

Tonight, the AFLPA (players association) hold their "night of nights", where several awards are handed out.

The awards are; (Collingwood noms and my winner);

Robert Rose Most Courageous Award;

Luke Ball nominated, and he is an outside chance to take the award. Other contenders are Luke Hodge, Joel Selwood, Lenny Hayes and Jude Bolton.

And the winner is....... Lenny Hayes. I just think he stands out more then the others, while Ball is almost suicidal at times, and Hodge is damn tough, Hayes is the most courageous, or at least he will be tonight.

Best First Year Player;

Josh Thomas is our nomination, as we had no first year player who made his debut (Blair doesn't count as he was rookied last year).
The main contenders are Michael Barlow, Ryan Bastinac, Tom Scully, Dustin Martin and Lewis Jetta.

And the winner is........ Michael Barlow. Easy answer here, as the others are young, and Barlow was in Brownlow medal contention before he broke his leg. I hope he wins too.

Best Captain;

Nick Maxwell is our obvious nomination here, and for mine, he should win the thing. His side has finished on top, when no one gave us a chance of getting there.
Other contenders include Chris Judd, Jonathon Brown, Matthew Pavlich, Cameron Ling and Brett Kirk as the fairytale winner, although Sydney have a cheating amount of 3 noms.

And the winner is............. Nick Maxwell. As I said, he has captained the side to the top of the ladder, and to the clearest win in the finals yet. This award is not about talent, it's about leadership, and for mine he has been the best leader in the AFL this year.

AND THE BIG ONE..................................

THE LEIGH MATTHEWS TROPHY FOR MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Dane Swan, Alan Didak and Scott Pendlebury are up here, for our first real contender at this prize since Nathan Buckley was at his best.
Other contenders are Gary Ablett, Luke Hodge, Chris Judd, Brendon Goddard and Jack Riewoldt.

And the winner is.................DANE SWAN. I'm not saying I believe he will win, I'm saying he should. The problem is, this is voted upon by all the listed players in the AFL, and most of them despise Collingwood. I could accept Hodge beating Swan by a few votes, but if anyone else finishes ahead of Swanny, it is a bloody joke. Also, Pendles and Dids might steal votes of Swanny, while no one at Hawthorn will steal votes off Hodge.

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Big night tonight, Swan and the Collingwood boys can attend and enjoy the night.

It's delayed on Fox Sports at 9.30PM, but most year's it is covered live on SEN from about 7.30 onwards.

GO SWANNY.

 

[HotPiesWithSauce]

Agree with 3/4 of your tips.

I think Dustin Martin is a shoe-in for Best First Year Player.

 

[Swanny36]

Cheers Matty, I reckon Dustin Martin will take out best first year player though, the kid is a freak!

 

[danielnajdek]

Swan better win it!!

 

[look at him goooo!]

as much as i'd love swan to win the MVP, if anyone other than sandilands wins it (which i suspect will happen) then the award's name should be changed from Most Valuable Player

 

[mattys123]

as much as i'd love swan to win the MVP, if anyone other than sandilands wins it (which i suspect will happen) then the award's name should be changed from Most Valuable Player

I disagree entirely.

I see the award as an MVP of the whole competition, not just on a players respective club.

Yes, Sandliands is probably the standout or most valuable player at any individual club, but he wouldn't be rated top 10 in terms of the "best" players in the AFL.

The wording of the award comes from America anyway, where the best player usually wins the award, not necessarily the "most valuable".

I'd be shocked if Sandilands won it, he is no where near the best players in the comp for 2010, which the award really is about.

 

[Pie eyed]

as much as i'd love swan to win the MVP, if anyone other than sandilands wins it (which i suspect will happen) then the award's name should be changed from Most Valuable Player

It's going to be the most valuable player to an individual club then Lecras will win it twice in one year because after him Wet toast got nothin'....and I mean absolutely stone motherless, not a sausage this year.

 

[AG]

I'd be shocked if Sandilands won it, he is no where near the best players in the comp for 2010, which the award really is about.

Bit harsh. Swan to win but Sandilands has been brilliant this year. I'd have him in the top 5 along with Swan, Hodge, Goddard and Ablett.

 

[Pie eyed]

I hope one of our regulars will keep us up to date with the awards as I don't, and will never again, pay for TV. (I used to have the Sky when they had the AFL channel until the lousy dog rooters axed it.)

 

[smiddaz123]

Sandilands is more valuable to Freo than Swan is the us probably. Swan has been better in 2010 though.

 

[mattys123]

I hope one of our regulars will keep us up to date with the awards as I don't, and will never again, pay for TV. (I used to have the Sky when they had the AFL channel until the lousy dog rooters axed it.)

It's not live on Fox anyways, we will know the winner well before it is announced at close to 10.30 on Fox.

I'm hoping SEN are doing it live again.

Live updates from the AFLPA twitter feed too;

http://twitter.com/AFLPA

 

[mattys123]

Bit harsh. Swan to win but Sandilands has been brilliant this year. I'd have him in the top 5 along with Swan, Hodge, Goddard and Ablett.

Yeah, bit harsh, I'd rate him top 10 this year, but I was trying to point out the award really isn't given to the "most valuable player", it's more the "most outstanding", and therefore if anyone but Swan or Hodge win it, I think it will be a joke, as they have been the clear standouts for me this season.

I wouldn't argue if Kirk won best Captain ahead of Maxwell, it would be a nice gesture from the players.

 

[danielnajdek]

Swan should really win it considering he came second last year to Ablett. Wont be happy if Hodge or Ablett win it.

 

[look at him goooo!]

Yeah, bit harsh, I'd rate him top 10 this year, but I was trying to point out the award really isn't given to the "most valuable player", it's more the "most outstanding", and therefore if anyone but Swan or Hodge win it, I think it will be a joke, as they have been the clear standouts for me this season.

I wouldn't argue if Kirk won best Captain ahead of Maxwell, it would be a nice gesture from the players.

certainly by no means did i mean that sandilands has been the best player in the comp this year. i just said that if they REALLY chose the most valuable player then sandilands would win it because he is that much more valuable than any other ruckman if you get what i mean

look at it this way guys. compile a list of the best 22 players in the competition this year (take the all-australian team for example). if you were to take any player out of that team and have someone else come in to play their position the sandilands would be most missed. eg. if you take ablett out of the team, his influenced wont be missed that much because you'd have a montagna/selwood/pendlebury/boyd come in for him, all of whom would cover for ablett nicely. take sandilands out and you'd likely have mumford come in for him, and his drop in influence will be noticed more. if you get what i mean...

anyway i'm just nitpicking with the name of the award, i'm all for it being an award for the best player, which swan would definitely win

 

[Jabso]

Sandilands is more valuable to Freo than Swan is the us probably. Swan has been better in 2010 though.

It's the most valuable player in the competition, not to their team. Watson is probably more valuable to his team than Swan.

 

[Pie eyed]

It's not live on Fox anyways, we will know the winner well before it is announced at close to 10.30 on Fox.

I'm hoping SEN are doing it live again.

Live updates from the AFLPA twitter feed too;

http://twitter.com/AFLPA

Thanks Mattys

 

[NT.Thunder]

I honestly think that Swan's main competition in the MVP award is going to be Goddard.

Goddard has had an outstanding year also and his consistency has been 2nd to none this year.

Versatile player who often changes a game either in defence or up forward, he should poll well.

But go Swannnny!

 

[Footy guru]

The last and only pie to win the award was darren millane in 1990 so if Swan wins tonight it may be an omen for what it is to come perhaps another grand final = what a way to end the year. There are just so many similarities to the pies in 1990 and now its our year again.

 

[NT.Thunder]

The last and only pie to win the award was darren millane in 1990 so if Swan wins tonight it may be an omen for what it is to come perhaps another grand final = what a way to end the year. There are just so many similarities to the pies in 1990 and now its our year again.

We definitely don't want tooooo many similarities

 

[Jabso]

Twitter seems to be my immortal enemy. The feed still says "Kevin murray has entered the buiding - posted half a minute ago". It's been like that for half an hour.

I DONT ****ING GET TWITTER WHAT THE **** **** ****

 

[Zahki]

Yeah it's stuck like that for me too.

 

[mattys123]

Don't worry, it just means the AFLPA Twitter account hasn't had any entries yet.

I might just skip the whole waiting for updates thing and watch it on Fox, it only goes for an hour anyway, so about 10.20 they should announce the winner.

 

[Shellz]

You'd think we'd know by now??

 

[dogbert]

Luke Hodge Most Courageous Player

 

[TradeDraft]

Luke Hodge Most Courageous Player

No Real Suprise