TWO Merrivale stars and a Kolora-Noorat workhorse are favourites to win the Warrnambool and District league’s top individual honour, the J. A. Esam Medal.
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Tigers Alister Porter and Gareth Crawford and Power onballer Joe Kenna were the popular picks to win the medal at City Memorial Bowls Club on Wednesday from a straw poll of coaches.
Porter had support to improve on his third placing in 2014 from Panmure’s David Haynes and Old Collegians’ Daryl Beechey.
Haynes also backed Dennington defender Luke Duncan to figure prominently.
“Al Porter has had a pretty good year, he’s always featuring in the best,” he said.
“And Luke Duncan has been pretty good at Dennington, he’s played some solid footy there and been prominent in their awards.”
Beechey believed the Warriors had too even a spread of contributors to have anyone figure prominently. He tipped Porter to “fare all right” while his teammate Manny Sandow had his claims.
“There’s no one from us I could say would be pushing the envelope,” he said.
“It’s probably the same with Dennington, they’ve been pretty even, I don’t know who will stand out there.”
Russells Creek’s Jay Everall had Crawford, a former Western Border league medal winner, as his favourite.
“Merrivale won a lot of games and he’s been one of their better midfielders, he’d have to be half a show,” he said.
“Certainly both times he’s played us he’d go close to being best on ground.”
Everall also highlighted Kenna as a leading contender – “he would be as good a chance as any”.
Kenna, Porter and Crawford were the tips of South Rovers’ Nathan Isles.
“I reckon it’s a little bit of a tricky one this year. Someone like Jet (Dowie) will poll well but history says even big goalkickers have rarely won the medal,” Isles said.
Allansford’s Josh Parkinson had Kenna as his favourite because “he’s a good player in that side and they’ve won enough games for him to get top votes”.
Timboon Demons’ Norm Vogels predicted either Kenna or Dennington assistant coach Leigh Evans.
“They’re the guys we tried to shut down when we played them,” he said.
But Kolora-Noorat’s Danny Finn had Power utility Joe Conheady overshadowing his well-backed teammate. Finn also picked Tiger Sam Gleeson to be near the top of the leaderboard.
“(Conheady) is a very flashy player and he’s got the long locks, he takes the game on. He’s a pretty exciting player,” he said.