AN OVERWHELMED Stacy Mills discovered she was the 2016 netball league best-and-fairest while she was on the phone to her “very excited” mother.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Allansford defender led by whisker heading into the final round of the D.G. Membery Medal, with Kolora-Noorat youngster and eventual runner-up Brooke Hoare and Nirranda’s Joanna Couch just two votes behind.
The Allansford table roared loudest when she secured a medal-winning two votes in the final round, leaving a confused but excited mother on the end of the line to make sense of a delayed transmission of the count.
“Mum actually rang me, and I answered the phone to her as she was listening to the count on the radio,” Mills said.
“I heard them say (my sister) Rebecca Rohan got third, I said ‘mum, I've got to go – they’re calling me onto the stage’. I didn’t know if she knew what had happened or anything.
“My husband said ‘do you think I should come?’ and I said ‘no, I don’t think I’ll poll very well, I’ll just go along for a look like I do every other year’.
“It was getting close towards the end, so I sent him quick text message. I was still doubting, thinking I didn’t play my best in the last few rounds. My husband arrived for the end of it all.”
She played out the season with sisters Jessica and Rebecca Rohan for Allansford, with Rebecca creeping within three votes of the D G Membery Medal.
However, she finished third behind Mills and Kolora-Noorat's first year senior player Brooke Hoare.
Mills accrued the majority of her winning votes through the middle of the season – but was only best on court twice – against South Rovers in round seven, and also in a loss to Dennington in round 12.
Consistent performances paid off for the mid-court star, after she bagged sets of one and two votes in no less than 11 games which built the foundation for her 24 vote haul.
Fellow Allansford player Kerry Christoforou has snapped up her second WDFNL B Grade best and fairest in a thrilling 31-vote tie with Dennington's Chanelle Maher. Christoforou secured a two-vote buffer leading into the final round, but the Dennington contingent was in raptures soon after when Maher was awarded three votes to tie the leaderboard.
"It's really exciting. It's great to win it with Kerry as well," Maher said.
"We've got some strong teams still to beat this year so hopefully we can get that done and take out the flag.”
