PORT ADELAIDE young gun Shineah Goody has been named the AFL Players’ Best First Year Player.
The award caps a remarkable debut season by the midfielder who was also named as part of the All-Australian squad of 42 earlier this month and finished runner-up in the Telstra AFLW Rising Star award to teammate Matilda Scholz.
Playing mostly on the wing, Goody averaged 13 disposals and 5.3 tackles per game.
Her best performance was probably the 22-disposal showing she had in the win over St Kilda in Week 8, when she also took 11 marks and laid eight tackles.
Captain Janelle Cuthbertson was nominated for the Best Captain Award, defender Ebony O’Dea was a finalist for the Most Courageous Player award and Scholz along with midfielders Maria Moloney and Abbey Dowrick were nominated for the AFL Players’ Most Valuable Player Award.
The way the voting works is that every AFLW player is asked to nominate the three teammates they deem worthy of the MVP award.
In stage two of the voting process, players are asked to select their MVP from the list featuring three nominees from every club but can’t vote for their teammates in stage two.
Players nominate just one teammate for the second round of voting for the Most Courageous and Best-First Year player awards.
All captains are automatically nominated and unlike the AFL Best and Fairest award, players remain eligible for the awards even if suspended.
Port Adelaide AFLPA awards nominees:
AFL Players’ Most Valuable Player Award, proudly presented KPMG: Abbey Dowrick, Maria Moloney, Matilda Scholz
AFL Players’ Best First Year Player Award, proudly presented by Torrens University Australia: Shineah Goody
AFL Players’ Best Captain Award, proudly presented by The Diamond Guys: Janelle Cuthbertson
AFL Players’ Most Courageous Player Award, proudly presented by Tackle Your Feelings: Ebony O’Dea