Midfielders in box seat for Hayward

Gun Bunbury Bulldogs on-baller Jesse Gribble is a marginal favourite to receive his second Hayward Medal when a who’s-who of the South West football community gathers at the Lighthouse Beach Resort for the medal count on Tuesday.

Presented to the South West Football League’s best and fairest every year since 1946, history shows that the Hayward is almost always won by a midfielder or ruckman.

Tall forwards Marc Re and Aidan Parker have garnered most of the headlines during Bunbury’s resurgent 2014 but it is the Bulldogs’ engine room that has laid the platform for success – and in that area, Gribble is king.

The hard-nosed Bunbury captain attracts a tag every week but is rarely shackled for long, often bursting out of the blocks and running his opponent to a standstill by the fourth quarter when he is at his most dangerous.

Hot on Gribble’s heels in the race to the Hayward are Eaton Boomer Christopher Atthowe and Tiger recruit Brett Robinson.

Atthowe has found success both on the ball and creating off half-back with his booming right foot and was the competition’s form player in the first half of the season before going slightly off the boil.

In his first year in the SWFL Robinson has shown why he was so highly coveted by Swan Districts, combining pace and awareness in traffic with the grit required to win the hard ball.

He has also proved reliable in front of goal, stepping up in the absence of the injured Guy Piggott to kick 43 majors for the season – good for second highest on the Tigers’ goal kicking list.

Young Panthers’ midfielder Brayden Lawler enjoyed a breakthrough season and returned ruckman Michael Robinson was the pick of the competition’s big men but the pair may hurt each other in the medal count with only six votes on offer for each game.

Their chances will be further diminished by the mid-season arrival of former Perth Demon Reese Richardson who was a revelation for Carey Park after the bye and will likely poll well himself.

Busselton’s charge will be led by captain Daniel McGinlay who is never far from the action and has already proven popular with awards selectors this season after being named best and fairest at the 2014 Landmark Country Football Championships.

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