Oct 1, 2013

DIVISION 3: COACHES’ MVP

by Peter Baird (Twitter: @frostybaird)

Who is the Best and Fairest of them all?

We will find out on Chandler Medal night who is judged by the Eastern Football League umpires to be the Best and Fairest in each division.

Ahead of the Chandler Medal, though, I caught up with each of the coaches from 2013 and asked them to nominate the three players from their division that were the most valuable this season.

These are not the guys the coaches necessarily are tipping to take home the medal on the big night, rather the players that provided the most headaches for opposition coaches, structure to their teams and the ones their own coaches relied upon. These were the players that were the most valuable in 2013.

Each coach was asked to provide three, two and one votes to the three most valuable players from their division.

The class of Chris Annakis was hard not to notice in 2013 and certainly did not escape the attention of the Division 3 coaches.

Annakis racked up possessions at will through the Doncaster midfield on its way to claiming the premiership. He will head into the vote count as a red-hot favourite to take home the Edie Medal.

Dean Grice showed why he is already an EFL legend, having another fantastic year for Boronia, while Brad Hutchinson returned to Wantirna South in 2013 and made a huge impact.

Nathan Thompson spearheaded the Sharks in 2013 and with 75 goals from 13 games, providing most opposition coaches with a headache.

Division 3 was the most even of all the EFL divisions in 2013, so it’s no surprise the number of players nominated by coaches as potentially most valuable.

Below is the final tally…

Name

Club

Total

Chris Annakis

Doncaster

Dean Grice

Boronia

Brad Hutchinson

Wantirna South

Nathan Thompson

Doncaster