With brother Jayden a four time winner, Matt was happy to grab his first win at a club where his family has achieved so much success at.

"Yeah it's very special," Klemke said.

"Obviously a lot of hard work in the off-season coming off knee surgery and getting my body right.

"It's a bit of reward for effort I suppose which has been good."

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This season was very much a rebound year for Klemke, with him only playing the one game for the Demons in 2021, while he also played three games for Corowa-Rutherglen in the Ovens & Murray Football League.

His best and fairest win adds to a list of accolades this season that includes being named at ruck rover in the Riverina League Team of the Year as well as finishing equal fourth in the Jim Quinn Medal.

Klemke was pretty pleased with how his season went, especially given he was carrying an injury through a fair chunk of the season.

"It wasn't too bad," he said.

"The last half I struggled a bit because I was carrying a shoulder injury as well.

"I was happy with my year all up."

The Demons surged up the ladder this year and were minor premiers after only losing two games throughout the regular season.

While they eventually went down to Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong in the grand final, Klemke expects the young Demons side to return bigger and better next season.

"It's a young group and it's going to take a bit of developing," he said.

"There is a lot of good players and the attitude is in the right spot, the group is going to be well-placed I think which will be good."

While getting more games into the side's younger players will be a focus for the Demons next year, Klemke said they will need to keep advancing their fitness and skills as well as the standard across the league keeps improving.

" Just keep working on our fitness and we need to keep getting stronger," he said.

"The competition is gonna be stronger, so we have to keep improving on our skills.

"The talent is there, it might just take another year as a group being so young and just a bit more development."

Ed Perryman and Blake Harper finished equal second behind Klemke while Brad McMillan and Nick Perryman rounded out the top five.

In other awards from the evening, Harry Radley was awarded best in finals after a fantastic series where he was the Demons best in both the semi-final and grand final.

James Pope was named most improved after a breakout season that resulted in him being named in the Team of the Year, while Chad Fuller received the coaches award.

Stewart Fraser Medallist Sam Stening was named most consistent with McMillan also named most courageous.

Eliza Howard won the Demons' A grade best and fairest leading home Maddie Browning and Michelle Forrell.

The Demons also awarded life membership to Doug Bruckner, Nathan Fuller, Bettina Goolagong and Nerida Cook.

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