Sunbury’s Ashleigh Hardy and Redan’s Ruby Parry shared the Sally McLean Trophy for the Ballarat Football Netball A grade best and fairest after a thrilling count on Monday night.
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The pair, who were preliminary final opponents on Saturday, both polled 19 votes to finish one vote clear of Darley’s Amy Giaini while in equal-fourth place was Tarryn Munro of Sunbury and Cobras’ Susan Watson on 16 votes.
In a tightly-contested count, Parry entered the final round with a three-vote lead over Hardy and Munro. But she was joined by Hardy who produced a best-on-court performance in the final round against Sebastopol.
Hardy started the season in hot form with four three-vote games in the opening five rounds, yet she did not poll another vote until round 14.
Overall, she polled in seven matches, including five best-on-courts while Parry had 12 votes after seven rounds and polled in eight matches in total with four best-on-courts.
Hardy said it was great to win such an award and even better to share it with Parry. While it was a great honour to win the A grade best and fairest, Hardy will be hoping for the ultimate success on Saturday as Sunbury takes on North Ballarat City in the BFNL grand final.
“I did not expect this at all, I thought we’d share a lot of votes (across the team) so I definitely didn’t expect to come home with this tonight,” Hardy said.
“It’s exciting to make it to the grand final and hopefully we can continue on and get the win.”
Parry also came to the night with no expectation.
“I definitely didn’t come here expecting this. There’s so many good players in the league, so this was a shock.”