Page 82 - AFL Queensland 2015 Year in Review

A er undergoing significant change in 2014, the NEAFL consolidated from 14 teams down to 11 in 2015. NSW/ACT clubs Hills Eagles, Belconnen and Queanbeyan dropped back into their respective state league competitions.
Aspley, Redland and Southpo all had a number of changes from their 2014 lists, with Redland in pa icular dropping their average player age by two years to just under 21. Despite their young list and low expectations, the Bombers were in finals contention right up until round 21, where a loss to the Lions saw them finish eighth.
Southpo stormed home towards the end of the season to finish sixth, but were beaten by a strong Sydney Uni team in the first round of finals.
It was almost back-to-back premierships for the Hornets, who fell just 1 point sho against the Thunder in front of a crowd of nearly 6,000 people at TIO Stadium
in Darwin. Chris Dunne was best on ground for the Thunder with 4 goals.
Our local AFL clubs were again cursed with significant injuries. The Brisbane Lions (10th) were only able to field around 11 listed players on average, with the Gold Coast SUNS (7th) slightly be er with an average of around 13 listed players. The SUNS were able to improve from winless in 2014 to eight wins in 2015 thanks to the recruiting of a number of mature age rookies.
The Gold Coast SUNS also hosted the Sydney Swans in Mackay on ANZAC Day for the no hern city’s third game in as many years. The Mackay locals were fo unate enough to watch Adam Goodes first hand as he regained the form that would see him return to the Swans AFL team for what would be his last season of AFL football.
The NEAFL registered its first win as a combined representative team
against Tasmania at Burpengary
on 7th June. John Blair from Aspley took on the role as head coach, with Cameron Ile from the NT Thunder again given the nod to lead the team out onto the field. Sydney Uni defender Timothy Ba on, who was also vice-captain along with Gavin Grose from Aspley, was judged the NEAFL’s best player on the day with a strong outing in defense.
Sydney Uni’s Tom Young took out the 2015 NEAFL MVP Award in amazing fashion, polling 8 votes (of a possible 10) in the final round to pip NT Thunder midfielder Richard Tambling by 1 vote. NT Thunder crowd favourite Darren ‘Boof’ Ewing (leading goal kicker – 78 goals) and Redland utility Ma Uebergang (Rising Star) were the other major award winners.
Club Best & Fairest winners were Richard Tambling (NT Thunder), Josh Hunt (Southpo ), Josh Smith (Redland), and Ma hew Payne (Aspley).
82