GANMAIN-Grong Grong-Matong's Jacob Olsson and Coolamon's Jeremiah Maslin shared the spoils after the Riverina League's Jim Quinn Medal finished in a dramatic tie on Friday night.
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The vote count was held online for the first time, with the Lions ruckman and Hoppers on-baller both finishing on 17 votes, one ahead of fast-finishing young Lion Matt Hamblin.
The contenders can consider themselves unlucky not to poll further after the snap regional lockdown forced an early end to the season.
Lockdown began after three games of the penultimate round were played on Saturday, but it forced the crucial clash between Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong scheduled for the following day to be cancelled.
It denied the end top three a chance to poll further. The Lions were scheduled to have the bye in the final round while the Hoppers, who played one less game than everyone else in the league, were set to travel to last-placed Narrandera.
Olsson added to the Riverina League player of the year award, voted on weekly by coaches, he picked up in 2019.
After not training all pre-season due to knee surgery, Olsson racked up all 17 of his votes in a purple patch from round four to round 11, including five best-on-grounds.
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Maslin sat five votes behind Olsson after round 12, but drew level after being awarded two votes for Coolamon's round 15 win over Griffith.
Both men failed to poll in round 16 when Coolamon had a bye, before the last round to be polled was a non-event due to the cancellation of the Lions-Hoppers game.
The award capped a fine return to dominance for Maslin, who returned to football for the first time since 2014 for the Hopper in 2019. His campaign was hampered by niggling injury before the club took the COVID-affected 2020 season off.
He also spend plenty of time up forward this year, finishing seventh in the league goalkicking standards with 25.
Hamblin, who took out last year's AFL Riverina Championships best and fairest, polled 11 votes in his last five games to fall agonisingly short of a three-way tie.
Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes full forward Trent Castles finished close behind on 15 votes after a stellar season where he booted 71 goals in 11 games, while Leeton-Whitton's Sam Darley rounded out the top five on 13.
JIM QUINN MEDAL VOTING
17 - Jacob Olsson (GGGM), Jeremy Maslin (Coolamon); 16 - Matt Hamblin (GGGM), 15 - Trent Castles (MCUE), 13 - Sam Darley (Leeton-Whitton)
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