Kane Cornes has been crowned Port Adelaide's best-and-fairest player for the third time after winning the 2010 John Cahill Medal at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre tonight.
2010 John Cahill Medal Final Tally Board
Cornes’ win is his third in four years, following his successes in 2007 and 2008.
The Power's ‘Mr Indestructible’ - who also holds the club record of playing 171 consecutive AFL games - has been a model of consistency since 2004 with a remarkable seven consecutive top three finishes in the club’s best-and-fairest award.
The 27-year-old finished ahead of young key defenders Troy Chaplin, 24, and Alipate Carlile, 23, who finished second and third respectively.
Significantly, Chaplin and Carlile, along with midfielders Travis Boak, 22 (fourth) and Danyle Pearce, 24 (fifth), all improved on last year's results underlining the significant development of key young players at Alberton over the last 12 months.
Under the club’s best-and-fairest voting system, five members of the match committee cast their individual votes separately after each match, giving each player a vote somewhere between a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 4. This means that the maximum votes each player can get for an individual game is 20 votes.
4 votes are cast for a player who is considered to have put in an outstanding performance, 3 votes for an excellent performance, 2 votes for a very good performance and 1 vote for a player who is adjudged to have beaten their opponent.
Cornes opened up an early lead from Rounds 1-3 before Carlile (Rounds 4-5) and Chaplin (Round 6) temporarily hit the front. From Round 7 onwards however, Cornes was never headed as he held onto a nine vote win over Chaplin at the completion of Round 22.
Typically, consistency was a feature of Cornes' year with the midfielder missing out on votes in just one game for the entire year.
The stand-out individual game of the year was Jay Schulz' Round 13 performance against North Melbourne where he kicked seven goals in a losing game at Etihad Stadium. He received 19 out of a maximum 20 votes.
From a team perspective, it was the Round 18 upset win over Hawthorn that pleased the coaches the most with a season high 133 votes awarded.
Four other awards were also given out on the night.
Jackson Trengove, 19, who was nominated for the AFL Rising Star Award after his impressive performance in Round 20 against West Coast, won the Gavin Wanganeen Medal as the club's best player aged under 21.
Clever goalsneak Cameron Hitchcock, 20, won the Best First Year Player award, ahead of the five other debutants this year.
Paul Stewart, 23, who himself won the Best First Year Player award in 2008, continued his development by winning the Most Improved Player award.
For the third year in a row inspirational captain Domenic Cassisi, 27, won the player-voted Fos Williams Medal which is measured on leadership, selflessness, courage, professionalism, loyalty and sense of humour.
Besides acknowledging all the award winners, the club also paid tribute to retiring greats Warren Tredrea and Josh Carr as well as former premiership coach Mark Williams.
2010 John Cahill Medal Top 10
1. Kane Cornes
2. Troy Chaplin
3. Alipate Carlile
4. Travis Boak
5. Danyle Pearce
6. Domenic Cassisi
7. Dean Brogan
8. Justin Westhoff
9. Tom Logan
=10. Brett Ebert and Jay Schulz
John Cahill Medallist: Kane Cornes
2nd John Cahill Medal: Troy Chaplin
3rd John Cahill Medal: Alipate Carlile
Gavin Wanganeen Medallist:Jackson Trengove
Fos Williams Medallist: Domenic Cassisi
Best First Year Player: Cameron Hitchcock
Most Improved Player:Paul Stewart
