Central Blues Australian Football Club

It was a joyous night of celebration and recognition this past Friday as the club held its awards night at Shoeless Joe's.  The paparazzi (Rob Colburn) was out in full force to catch a glimpse of the Blues stars and their respective WAGs (wives and girlfriends) and HA'sb(husbands and boyfriends).  The night started off on the right foot as a slideshow of the Blues 2011 season by Rob Colburn was shown.

You can view: the men's video, women's video, and photos of the awards night. Thank you again to Rob for putting it together and all the great photos he took this season.

The first awards given out went to Damien McDonald, Sherelle Kelly-Witt, and Molly Gamble for leading the div 1, div 2 and women's teams respectively in goal kicking.  It would not be the only award for Damo as he also took out the 5th Quarter award and the downlow ('best' on ground on the footy trip).  He gave a stirring and inspirational acceptance speech but unfortunately spoke in kiwi so no one could understand.  All that could be made out was "U know I can't grab ur ghost chips!".  The F'ed Broom award (most embarrassing moment) went to kenny '2cups' Wong for his shocking performance in Ottawa.

The next award was the mens most improved which deservedly went to Derek 'George' MacDonald who tweeted his acceptance speech from Melbourne.  The women's MIP award went to Rene 'Baby Chaps' Tong, who started off the year being surprisingly (and questionably) left off the national team but did not sulk and instead used it as motivation to play her best footy yet and forced her way onto the team that finished second in the first women's international cup.  She also polled very well in the women's BnF but was not able to top her fellow Canadian Northern Light teammate Lisa Tazzman who won the women's BnF in a close vote.

The mens ROY award went to Dave 'Fritzy' Whittington who took the award in a tight race over Scott Shallow, Nathan Langen and Greg Bubela.  Fritzy was able to come on top due to his constituency and playing the most games of all the rookies.  Scott and Nathan also went head to head in the div 2 best and fairest count with Scott coming out on top to win.  Congratulations to both and the club looks forward to seeing a full year in the 1's next year for them.  The women's ROY award was even closer than the mens, ending in a tie between Kelsey Blair and Vera Santillana.  It was a shame neither played a full season or with each other as Kelsey dominated the early part of the season before returning to B.C. for school and Vera did not get recruited until the blues second last game but had 2 awesome performances in her debut.  The club can't wait to have them both back for a full season and to play with each other.  That was not the only tie of the night as the Bruce Parker Heart award was also shared by 2 people, incoming club president Jason 'Chief' Caisse and outgoing president Dan 'D2' Lock.

The last part of the night was devoid of any drama as some familiar names were read out.  Riley 'Vossy' Armstrong finished 2nd overall in the BnF and won the Top Canadian award for the second year in a row.  The only suspense left was whether there would be a repeat of last year's acceptance speech debacle.  Alas, Vossy was rather tame (ie. sober) this year.  Another repeat winner was Steve 'Snorkel' Rutledge who took out the defensive player of the year again.  And in the big one, the men's division 1 best and fairest, it was no surprise as Daniel 'Willsy' Wills polled a staggering 255 votes to take out first place.  He polled in nearly every game which speaks to his consistency and leadership.  Willsy was a great addition to the blues family and we look forward to having him back.

Medals were also given to Ewan 'Obi' Williams and D2 to recognize their reaching 50 games this past season.  They become the 7th and 8th blue to join the 50 games club.  One of the members of this exclusive club is co-founder Rob 'Chaps' Chapman, who announced his retirement.  He was presented with his number 7 jumper in recognition of his service and dedication to the club.  His family including his fiancee, Jamie Lynn, his dad and brother, Gord and Jeff, who have been two of the biggest blues supporters since the beginning of the club were on hand to share in the celebration.  Congratulations Chaps, you've earned it.