Gun midfielder Jamie Rankin has pledged his ongoing allegiance to Lake Albert after collecting his third consecutive players’ player award at the Sharks’ annual presentation night.
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Rankin’s club treble capped off a remarkable season that included an undefeated premiership, a grand final ‘best on ground’ award, and selection in Football Wagga’s Pascoe Cup team of the year.
The physical centre also slotted his side’s opening goal in the Pascoe Cup decider but Rankin played down personal achievement in the wake of another piece of silverware.
“I’m pretty happy with all that but it’s not’s something I really think about,” Rankin said.
“I’m not the kind of guy who really likes going up to receive awards and make a speech.”
The Kooringal High School product was nevertheless happy to lock himself in for another year with the Sharks, rating 2018 “the best season yet”.
“Definitely, I mean to go through undefeated was something we didn’t even consider at the start of the year and seeing it happen was amazing,” Rankin said.
“I guess once we were four or five games out we though maybe we could actually do it, but we didn’t want to jinx ourselves and be that team that goes through the regular season but bails out in finals.
“It was a different feeling to winning it in 2016 because there was so much pressure for us to get it done this year, but it was still amazing and I’ll be sticking around with Lake Albert next year.”
Veteran defender Chris Durman was recognised for his brilliant finals series with the player of the finals gong while departing midfielder Jarrod Eaton was named best team player in the premiership side.
Shot-stopper Hayden Callander also drew praise in his maiden season as a goalkeeper to earn the first grade coaches award.
Meanwhile, Ashley Watt was named the Sharks’ Leonard Cup players player after a standout year while Hill Read collected the most valuable player award.
Kristen Prior and Ranya Khato were awarded the LASC Football Foundation Award with second grade women Sara Khalaff and Mel Noble collecting the players player and most valuable player prizes for their Madden Trophy side.
Sam Robbins, Andrew Ceeney and Kye Ritchie were big winners for the men’s Gardiner Shield side while Jeremy Polkinghorne, Tyrel Del Rosario, Damien Castle, Michael Davoren, Jack Burness and Ken Evers rounded out the third grade awards.
Trent Cutler took out the over 35s players player prize with Tim Cooper (coaches award) and Angelo Strano (most valuable player) also recognised alongside Kristian Bonetti (club person of the year) during the presentation night.
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