ANOTHER name will be etched into the glorious honour board of Les Innes Medal winners on Wednesday.
The Sunraysia Cricket Association First Division best and fairest will be crowned after a fantastic home-and-away season, with a number of players aiming for multiple-time honours and others looking to win the medal for the first time.
The Premier Women’s MVP will also be awarded alongside divisional batting and bowling average winners, Team of the Year members, under-18 male and female Player of the Year winners and the Country Week Player of the Tournament.
Choosing a favourite is nigh on impossible, given so many players put together outstanding seasons.
It’s hard to look past the dominance of Gol Gol at the top of the table this campaign and not feel they will have multiple players in the running, led by stars Shacaya Thomas and Wade Hancock.
Despite a slightly delayed start to the season after recovering from knee surgery, Thomas has been outstanding once again, leading the competition wicket tally with 29 scalps and recording the third-highest number of runs with 755.
Hancock also posted an outstanding 869 runs including three centuries to lead the run scoring until the final innings of the campaign.
Perhaps working against the duo is the fact Gol Gol have had so many contributors across the season who could steal votes.
Despite another tough campaign, Mildura Settlers could potentially spring a medal winner after Jason Morrison topped the runs tally with 892.
Unbeaten innings of 228, 170 and 129 are almost certain to gain the multiple-time premiership player at least nine votes, and add in 10 wickets and don’t be surprised if the all-rounder is close to winning his second league best-and-fairest.
Nichols Point also shared the load across their top-two campaign, but it’s hard to look past all-round star Shannon Bowen as their leading light, with 595 runs and 19 wickets.
Opener Nick Blacker, skipper Shaun Mathews and coach Luke Coates could also be strong pollers.
Irymple skipper Mark Thomson could become the first back-to-back Innes Medal winner since Mark White (05-06 and 06-07) following a superb campaign with the bat, finishing with three centuries on the way to 547 runs at 49.73.
Vice-captain Billy Phelan had a career-best campaign with 28 wickets while coach Bryson Lush also showed his all-round capabilities.
Mildura East’s finals campaign relied heavily on multiple contributors, but captain Brad Thomas and seven-time medal winner Tom Vadlja could score plenty of votes.
Thomas recorded 547 runs with two tons, while Vadlja made 486 and took 19 wickets.
From the non-finalists, Liam Freeman put together another strong season for Coomealla Wentworth and should poll, Kian Burns and Locke Thornton could lead the way for Mildura West, while Shane and Tony Trinick and even young Angus Smith may poll votes for Merbein.
The Premier Women’s MVP favourites include Coomealla Point captain and Katelin Kemp, who scored 281 runs and took 12 wickets, and Mildura Settlers gun Shania McKinnon who carved out 210 runs.
Mildura West duo Demi Zanoni and Tara Martin would also be well in contention.
The awards night begins at 6.30pm on Wednesday at the Coomealla Memorial Sporting Club.
