Moody, Cardillo tied at the top in Women’s B&F
Sawtell/Toormina's Lilli-yana Moody and Gina Cardillo from Northern Beaches are joint winners of the AFL North Coast's 2022 Women's Best & Fairest award.
IN an incredibly exciting Best & Fairest count, nothing could separate young gun Lilli-yana Moody and the energetic Gina Cardillo.
The pair were tied at the top of the Women’s Best & Fairest leaderboard on 18 votes with Coffs Breakers midfielder Cassidy Ronalds just one vote behind in third place.
The 17 year-old Moody shone late in the season for Sawtell/Toormina and she was rewarded with three votes in each of her last three matches to come from the clouds and grab a share of the lead with Cardillo.
Cardillo’s win means the Northern Beaches mid becomes the second player to win the AFL North Coast’s highest individual award in the women’s competition on multiple occasions. She joins Cambridge McCormick who won the award in both 2018 and 2019 when she was playing for Port Macquarie.
Just two days ago McCormick made her AFLW debut with the GWS Giants.
Through the middle part of the 2022 season, Cardillo polled 10 votes in the space of just five matches to grab the lead.
Ronalds was close to the top of the leaderboard at all stages of the count and with just one round remaining, Cardillo led Ronalds by one vote and Moody was a further two votes behind.
The final round saw Northern Beaches have the bye so Cardillo couldn’t add to her final tally of 18 votes. Both Ronalds and Moody played against each other at Richardson Park to give them a chance of securing the necessary votes to grab a win.
It was Moody who was awarded the three votes to cap off a memorable season.
2022 WOMEN’S BEST & FAIREST
18 – Lilli-yana Moody (Sawtell/Toormina) and Gina Cardillo (Northern Beaches)
17 – Cassidy Ronalds (Coffs Breakers)
8 – Jess Midivaine (Northern Beaches)
7 – Amanda Guthrie (Coffs Breakers)
6 – Fiona Bagley (Port Macquarie), Tyleah Larcombe (Grafton), Sarah Vidler (Coffs Breakers)
5 – Alana Hanson (Northern Beaches), Freya Hickey (Northern Beaches), Ellie Ryan (Port Macquarie), Emma Pitomaki (Northern Beaches)
PAST WINNERS
2018 Cambridge McCormick (Port Macquarie)
2019 Cambridge McCormick (Port Macquarie)
2020 Cassidy Ronalds (Coffs Breakers)
2021 Gina Cardillo (Northern Beaches)
