The 21-year-old midfielder is the best and fairest footballer in the state this year playing outside the AFL but including AFL-listed players who have predominantly toiled in the Victorian Football League this winter.

In a time of the season that is particularly team-orientated, individual accolades in all leagues should be celebrated and promoted as brightly as club flag feats. They set a standard players can aspire to be like.

Capturing the JJ Liston medal is a massive personal achievement for Rippon, a great honour for a club about to go standalone and it is huge for this region’s football.

For Williamstown’s Saade Ghazi, the ripple affects of this through the western suburbs quickly became evident when he won the Liston in 1989.

“I was proud to win the medal back in 1989 but what I didn't realise then was that a Lebanese 20 year-old was going to become a role model in the days and weeks after that,” Ghazi said at the Liston dinner. “I grew up in a suburb called Newport...to bring the satisfaction and joy to so many young kids in the area was something that would stay with me for a long time and that's the biggest gratitude that I've got and that’s because I was lucky enough to win the Liston Medal.”

Ghazi spoke in a string of five Liston medallists, opening the night, offering briefs on what winning the medal meant. This included 1952 medallist Port Melbourne’s Frank Johnson, the oldest living JJ Liston recipient, and Rooster Myles Sewell (2009). Each made powerful points in his own right. Sewell was preparing for the Roosters’ preliminary final the week he won and said at the time he did not get a chance to reflect on what he had achieved. 

“Although I was young, hearing the older guys talk about it I know in years to come it's something I'll look back on with great memories and be humbled to have my name alongside theirs,” Sewell said. An action portrait of Sewell in his Liston season lined the walkway into the Crown Palladium, rightfully among an impressive roll call of fellow winners. Legends in the league.

Rippon’s football career is still largely unwritten. His tale so far is a great example of persistence. Homegrown talent, overlooked in the AFL draft and always tantalisingly close – close to TAC Cup honours, close to VFL state team selection – yet cementing a spot in this region’s marquee team and playing weekly alongside and against AFL talent. He has developed his craft alongside Sewell and dual Liston medallist Steve Clifton.

His next football chapter will be equally telling. Rippon still has so much to learn in the game. He is still hungry to play AFL, yet drafts can be like lotteries. Should Rippon be in VFL ranks next season, his challenge is to keep sharpening his game.

VFL fans and the growing base of AFL fans about the state league will know Rippon’s name now, each and every time he steps on the ground.

Most importantly, the Liston distinguishes Rippon as a role model. This is his chance to determine how his legend will be told.