North Warrnambool Eagles under 18.5 captain Seb Shiells finished his junior career on a high, taking out the Judd Cup on Sunday.
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The midfielder received the accolade - awarded to the Hampden league's best and fairest - with 20 votes across 17 games. Warrnambool's Finn Radley was runner-up with 15 votes.
"It feels pretty good," Shiells said of the honour.
"I hadn't really thought about it too much until now. I thought some of the boys would have taken the votes off me but it's a pretty good feeling."
The Eagles' under 18.5 preliminary final loss on Saturday also marked the end of Shiells' time at the club, at least for a while anyway.
He is headed to Melbourne's La Trobe University next year to study and intends to play football somewhere closer.
For that reason the youngster admitted the loss "hurt a bit more" but said it still felt good to finish his time at the Eagles with the Judd Cup.
"It's going to be sad to go, I love it here," he said. "I'll be back as soon as my uni course is done."
The season was also fruitful for Shiells in that he made his senior debut for the Eagles in a round 18 win over Camperdown.
He said he was grateful to coach Adam Dowie for giving him the opportunity.
He listed Dowie and junior coach Darren McDowell as playing crucial roles in his development at the club.
"Adam Dowie, one of his biggest strengths is how (well) he treats the junior teams," he said.
"He (McDowell's) coached me for the last four years and he's been a big influence."
Matt Hughes
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
