Here’s the lowdown on this year’s Football Wagga Gala Night:
Friday marks the celebration of Wagga’s best footballing talent and we’ve got everything you need to now about the big night.
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Player of the Year awards will be handed out across Football Wagga’s six opens competitions to recognise the best players as determined by coaches and referees.
There will also be a Team of the Year announced for each category alongside Coach of the Year awards.
Finally, we’ll also have some awards for best players in the Wagga City Wanderers program.
So, who’s in the mix for awards?
Here’s the shortlist for Player of the Year across the grades:
Pascoe Cup
- Anthony Trifogli (Leeton)
- Isaac Cooper (Junee)
- Jaiden O'Brien (Tolland)
- James Goode (Tumut)
- Jamie Rankin (Lake Albert)
- Kayne Cassidy (Cootamundra)
- Lincoln Weir (Wagga United)
- Patrick Hislop (Young)
Gardiner Shield
- Ali Mozafari (Henwood Park)
- Bernadette Blake (Tolland)
- Daniel Kisela (South Wagga)
- Harry Trevaskis (Henwood Park)
- James Trevaskis (Lake Albert)
- Nashwan Sulaiman (South Wagga)
- Tyler Arnold (Leeton)
- William McGrath (Junee)
Blake Cup
- Andre White (Wagga United)
- David McGowan (Wagga United)
- Ethan Contessa (Tumut)
- Jeremy Polkinghorne (Lake Albert)
- Orlando Holzapfel (Wagga United)
- Raymond Mitchell (Young)
- Ryan McLean (Tolland)
Over 35s
- Aaron Irlam (Henwood Park)
- Andrew Parkinson (Wanderers)
- Joel Irlam (Wanderers)
- Mark Cochrane (Henwood Park)
- Shane Bush (Henwood Park)
- Stephen Burns (South Wagga)
Leonard Cup
- Ashleigh Goode (Junee)
- Bernadette Blake (Tolland)
- Elisha Ward (Junee)
- Erin Boxsell (Cootamundra)
- Ingrid Weir (Lake Albert)
- Kaye Noonan (South Wagga)
- Lizzie Read (Tolland)
- Madeline Harris (Henwood Park)
Madden Trophy
- Alicia Smith (Lake Albert)
- Eleanor Miller (South Wagga)
- Joanna Balcombe (Tolland)
- Kara Hancock (Junee)
- Keira Dunlop (Wagga United)
- Micaela Hall (Young)
- Morgan Goode (Junee)
- Talia Smith (Temora)
Wait, how are these awards even determined?
We can answer that for you (probably).
Player of the Year awards are determined by the weekly referee votes, which are made after each game.
However, the Team of the Year is this year being determined by a combination of referee votes and coaching selections.
It’s a bit different to previous methods, so we got Football Wagga’s Robyn Harrington to explain:
This year, we asked all Pascoe and Leonard coaches to send in their top team, goalie, backs, mids and striker. From this, using the ref’s votes, we were able to pick a true ‘Team of the Year’.
Cool, I think I get it. Who won last year?
That’s something we can definitely tell you.
Last year’s Pascoe Cup Player of the Year award went to Young Lions skipper Duncan Cameron, who stunned the field (and himself) to take the top gong with 19 votes.
Cameron just edged Tumut’s Reece Mastellotto, Cootamundra’s Adam McPhail and Wagga United’s Nazar Yousif, all of whom polled 18 votes in one of the tightest counts in recent memory.
In the Leonard Cup, Tolland star Bernadette Blake shared honours with South Wagga teenager Biola Dawa, both of whom polled 20 votes.
Blake has been nominated in both the Leonard Cup and Gardiner Shield – keep an eye out for a historic double win tonight.
Anything else I need to know?
Sure thing – we’ll have a live blog of the entire night right here on The Daily Advertiser, so you won’t need to move a muscle to find out who takes home the silverware.
