“On this day in September” – 18 September

There’s only one event that’s fallen on the date of 18 September in the League’s 40 seasons of history, but it’s a big one!

Today we go all the way back to the year our League began for the awarding of the first ever Best & Fairest Medal.

1982 SENIOR PRESENTATION NIGHT
In the first year of the competition the award was shared between two players – Doug Musgrave and Ian Johnstone.

Doug is the only player from the Urunga Hawks to have claimed this honour. The Urunga club was a founding member of the League and competed with that identity until the 1985 season before it relocated and became the Nambucca Valley Lions in 1986. Despite three separate periods in the competition, no Nambucca Valley Lions player has ever won the Senior Best and Fairest award, so Doug Musgrave can lay claim to being the only player from the Urunga Hawks/Nambucca Valley Lions to claim the League’s highest individual honour.

Ian Johnstone played for the North Coffs Kangaroos. In all, North Coffs has had five players to have won the Best and Fairest Medal (includes Brad Giri who won twice), but Ian is the person who led the way in the initial years and helped to lay the platform for the club’s individual and team success.

To see more details of the AFL North Coast timeline over the past 40 seasons and beyond, please click here.

There have been no major events held on 19 September through the years so “On this day in September” will take a break tomorrow and return on Monday.