Cardillo’s third Women’s win a highlight of B&F counts

Gina Cardillo (Northern Beaches Blues)

THE medal for the AFL North Coast’s Women’s Best & Fairest award may have a new name but the result was very similar.

Northern Beaches midfielder Gina Cardillo won the award for the third time in four years. Although this was the first time she’s won the award under the guise of its new name, the Cambridge McCormick Medal.

Cardillo finished eight votes ahead of Port Macquarie’s Ellie Ryan with Phoebe Baptiste from the Coffs Breakers a further vote behind.

The count for the Brian Saville Medal, which is awarded to the best player in the men’s competition, ended in a tie for the first time since 2007.

Sawtell/Toormina’s Jai Langenberg polled three votes in the final game of the year to join Alex Pyke of the Coffs Breakers at the top of the leaderboard.

Ned O’Neill from Grafton was the runner-up in the count, one vote ahead of last year’s winner Luke Hodoniczky (Port Macquarie), Riley Dagger (Coffs Breakers) and Tom Neal (Sawtell/Toormina).

AFL NORTH COAST BEST & FAIREST WINNERS

Senior Men (Brian Saville Medal) – Jai Langenberg (Sawtell/Toormina) and Alex Pyke (Coffs Breakers)

Senior Women (Cambridge McCormick Medal) – Gina Cardillo (Northern Beaches Blues)

Reserves (Paul Sheldon Medal) – Latrell Mundine (Northern Beaches Blues)

Under 18s – Braeden Fuller (Port Macquarie) and Ned Lucas (Coffs Breakers)

Youth Girls 17s (Nikki Wallace Medal) – Molly Bowd (Bellingen)

Under 16s – Tobie Quinn (Port Macquarie) and Edward Redfern (Port Macquarie)

Youth Girls 15s – Chloe Murphy (Sawtell/Toormina)

Under 14s (Ackerly Collier Medal) – Sam Dicker (Port Macquarie Flyers)

Youth Girls 13s (Brianna McFarlane Medal) – Willow Matthews (Sawtell/Toormina)

Under 12s – Kalani Brown (Northern Beaches Blues)