ILETT IS BACK-TO-BACK NT B&F WINNER

Cameron Ilett last night capped a stunning second season in the QAFL when he won his second NT Thunder B&F award.

Ilett, winner of the Syd Guildford Trophy as the QAFL Football Record Player of the Year, followed his nail-biting two-vote 2009 win over Mark McLean with a much more comfortable victory in 2010.

The champion midfielder, also a standout for Queensland in their record-breaking win over Tasmania in June, polled 211 votes to beat Brett Goodes (179) in what was a two-horse race for most of the season.

Kenrick Tyrrell (108) was a distant third, with Jake Dignan (92), Darren Ewing (91), Cameron Roberts (81), Rising Star winner Zephi Skinner (79), Jared Ilett (77), Matt Rosier (56) and Shannon Rusca (54) completing the top 10.

Cameron Ilett also won the NT Thunder Players’ Player as the club qualified for the QAFL finals for the first time in their first season under coach Murray Davis.

This was decided on the 3-2-1 votes on a weekly basis of each player involved in each QAFL match.

Interestingly, only the Ilett brothers and full forward Ewing have finished top 10 in the Thunder B&F in each of their first two years in the State League.

Missing from last year’s top 10 were McLean (2nd), Peter MacFarlane (4th), David May (5th), Shane Thorne (6th), Karl Lohde (8th), Brad Palipuaminni (9th) and Ben Ahmat (10th).

The Thunder B&F was decided on the 5-4-3-2-1 votes of each member of the NTFC match Committee.

In other awards, Dean Staunton was named ‘Most Improved’, Ewing was the Leading Goal-Kicker and Best Player U23 for the second year in a row, Palipuaminni received the ‘Coach’s Award’, Rosier was judged ‘Most Courageous’, Jared Ilett won ‘Most Professional’ and Skinner took ‘Best Young Talent’.