ANOTHER strong display in the final round helped Northern Jets' midfielder Mitch Haddrill hold on to win his second Farrer League Player of the Year award.
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The finish to the 2021 award, voted weekly by the coaches, came right down to the wire.
Haddrill entered the final round with a two-vote lead over East Wagga-Kooringal midfielder Harry Fitzsimmons, who then polled the maximum six votes with a best-on-ground display in the Hawks' 82-point win over Charles Sturt University.
Fortunately for Haddrill, he had put on a show of his own at Coleambally and polled five out of a possible six votes in the Jets' come-from-behind win against the Blues.
It was enough to get him home by a vote.
"It is nice," Haddrill said of the win.
"There is some pretty good players in the league. Each team has some very good players.
"The likes of Jimbo Lawton, he's an outstanding player. For someone his size, ability, he's just that clean on the ground and flash around goals, he's a gun. So there's definitely some good players at the moment so it's nice to get the win."
Haddrill's form was a big reason behind the Jets' turnaround in the second half of the season that saw them claim fifth spot.
A two-time Gerald Clear Medallist, and a previous winner of the Player of the Year, Haddrill did not rate it as his best season.
"It wasn't too bad. I would have liked to have gone a little bit better," he said.
"You seem to get tagged every week so it's nice when you do get a bit of space.
"I think I've probably played better footy but with a bit of age comes experience and you learn to play the game a bit differently to when you were a bit younger."
Haddrill said the extra attention from opposition teams makes life tough.
"It's a pain in the ass in footy, really. It happens most games," he said.
"Sparksie (Marrar coach Shane Lenon) doesn't normally tag me, which is good. And it probably goes to show that they're not worried about what the other team are doing, they're worried about winning footy themselves and it pays off for them."
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Haddrill, 27, said he enjoyed this season at the Jets. He believes an increase in locally-based players was a big positive for the club.
"It's been good. There's a good vibe at the club at the moment," he said.
"We've got a lot of young locals that have come through, either come back from school or are back on the farm and we're in a position that we haven't been in for a long time.
"Pretty much as long as I've been playing footy, we've had a heap of blow ins but this year we didn't have too many and all sort of young local kids and there is a pretty good vibe at the moment so it's been good."
Farrer League Player of the Year
Final leaderboard
44 - Mitch Haddrill (Northern Jets)
43 - Harry Fitzsimmons (East Wagga-Kooringal)
34 - James Lawton (Marrar)
33 - Dean Biermann (The Rock-Yerong Creek), Jack Reynolds (Marrar)
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