Friday 18 March 2011
The long history of the Grogan Medal for the best and fairest player in Queensland’s major football competition will continue in 2011, with the biggest individual prize in the game awarded in the NEAFL Northern Division.
Southport and Morningside’s team dominance is reflected in their individual hold over the Grogan Medal since the Sharks entered the competition in 1983.
The black-and-whites have won 10 Grogan Medals in that time, while Morningside have collected seven.
Mt Gravatt’s strike-rate is equally as good, having produced three medal winners since joining the QAFL in 1994.
The Grogan Medal is believed to be the only major State League best and fairest count that has seen back-to-back three-way ties.
That occurred in 1992 when Morningside’s Rick Chapman and Southport duo David Crutchfield and Chris O’Sullivan shared the title, before current State coach Jason Cotter, Lions general manager of football Dean Warren and Morningside’s Darryl Bourke shared the medal a year later.
Broadbeach (David Round) and Labrador (Todd Featherstone) have produced just the one winner each since they entered the top flight in 1997.
The Brisbane Lions Reserves never produced a Grogan Medallist in their 13 years in the QAFL.
Southport endured their longest ‘drought’ – eight years – in providing a Grogan Medallist until Danny Wise claimed the medal last winter.
There will be five Grogan Medallists running around in the NEAFL this season – Wise, Featherstone, Nathan Gilliland, Nathan Kinch and Matthew Payne.
