Jim Park Award 2026

Re: Jim Park Award 2026

Reply #45 – September 27, 2026, 05:46:38 pm

AFL 2026 EF#1: Carlton vs Geelong
We've been playing Elimination Finals for weeks, but we finally ran out of juice.

Still, we managed to slaughter both GF teams in our run.

Trends:
[1]   There were 9 voters this round, which is a little disappointing for a final, but ...
please do vote, win, lose or draw: it is something we appreciate and it makes our statistics a lot more reliable. And our statistics hold up pretty well when it comes to John Nicholls Medal night!
I must admit that I see a lot of names from previous campaigns who no longer vote and find that disheartening. I can only hope hope those posters are faring well.

[2]   The rating was a 7.52, which represents almost a C-! Voters were not pleased, which I can understand. We have beaten these zeroes before this year.

[3]   13 players managed a mention this week.

[4]   The average vote this week was 25, which is pretty ordinary. Some of it is due to the lack of voters. Scores are around 30 are more usual when we win, so read into that what you will.

[5]   Again 4 players managed 100 votes or more. This is normal for a win these days, but wasn't good enough this time.

[6] It was a large gap between Sam Walsh, who was BOG for the 11th time for 2026. Weitering, Evans and Hewett filled in the placings.

[7] Only one player managed votes from everyone again this week; Sam Walsh

[8]   It was a more even spread this week, with a strong midfield and a powerful defence.

[9] Our youngsters were not as significant this week. The best were Smith and Wilson.

Votes:
Walsh, Sam   309
Weitering, Jacob   180
Evans, Francis   113
Hewett, George   110
Hollands, Oliver   88
Wilson, Billy   79
Cerra, Adam   71
Cripps, Patrick   54
Smith, Jagga 42
Florent, Oliver   42
Lord, Cooper   21
Kemp, Brodie   21
Pittonet, Marc   8

Progressive Voting:
Walsh, Sam   5113
Patrick Cripps 3879
Smith, Jagga 2921
Hewett, George 2102
Pittonet, Marc 1441
Florent, Oliver 1430
Will Hayward 1126
Ainsworth, Ben 1121
Evans, Francis   1097
Newman, Nic   943
Harry McKay 943
Weitering, Jacob 861
Dean, Harry 782
Matthew Carroll   769
Haynes, Nick   763
Kemp, Brodie 756
Mitch McGovern 710
Cowan, Lachie 612
Ollie Hollands 569
Cerra, Adam 549
Hollands, Elijah 426
Byrne, Talor 422
Blake Acres 397
William, Zac 330
Wilson, Billy   311
Lord, Cooper 271
Wade Derksen   119
Young, Lewis   94
Cottrell, Matthew 59
Ison, Jack   43
Liam Reidy   28
Boyd, Jordan   27
Adam Saad   15
Flynn Young   8
Flynn Riley   6

Re: Jim Park Award 2026

Reply #46 – September 27, 2026, 05:48:09 pm

Congratulations to Sam Walsh, winner of the Jim park Award, with a whopping 5113 votes!

Congratulations to Patrick Cripps comes in 2nd, with 3879 votes, over a thousand votes behind Walsh, but almost a thousand points ahead of Jagga Smith. Considering his slow start to the year, this is a huge effort. Crippa's 1st BOG for the year was in Round 9. By that time, Sam Walsh had been BOG 5 times already.

Coming in 3rd, was Jagga Smith, 2921 votes, a brilliant effort for a youngster in his first effective season, particularly coming back from the knee reconstruction.

George Hewett was 4th this season, with 2102 votes. George got his first significant votes in Round 13.

Walsh was better than 500 votes better than George Hewett's score in 2025. Similarly, Patrick Cripps was about 1000 votes better than his score for 2025, where he was also second.

Marc Pittonet came in 5th, with 1441 votes. Last year he scored 159 votes and did not get into the top 10.

Last year 9 players got more than 1000 votes; this year it was the same, 9 players.

Re: Jim Park Award 2026

Reply #47 – September 27, 2026, 09:22:44 pm

Other statistics of note:

[1] Last year Harry McKay was 9th, this year 11th.
Jacob Weitering was 4th last year, this year he was 12th.
Ollie Hollands was 3rd last year with 1673 votes. This year he was 19th with 569 votes.

[2] Last year Nick Haynes managed 1237 votes; this year he scored 763 and was outside the top 10. Yet, I would argue he was at least as effective this season. I think we played better more often, so Nick's efforts were not always as obvious.

[5] Five of the top 10 vote getter this year were new to the club. That says hug amounts to me! If we can replicate this in 2027, we will be a serious threat, as I don't think most of our newcomers are going to be significantly worse.