Did the selectors get Goal and Mark of the Year right?
Collingwood forward Josh Daicos was awarded Goal of the Year for his snap on the run in the dying minutes of his side’s win over Sydney, beating out Patrick Cripps’ goal on the run and Jack Newnes’ after-the-siren match-winner.
Gerard Whateley believes Newnes should have been the clear winner.
“We got the Goal of the Year wrong. Jack Newnes kicked the Goal of the Year,” Whateley said.
“You can kick artful, dodging, weaving goals all day long. The Goal of the Year was Jack Newnes and it wasn’t even close.
“I think it’s a terrible pity.”
Former Port Adelaide tagger Kane Cornes admits he wasn’t fazed by Daicos as the winner.
“I was okay with Daicos getting it with the circumstances of the game and is it Newnes, is it Robbie Gray, Newnes’ was further out, but Gray’s was equally as important so how do you split those two,” he told SEN’s Whateley.
However, Cornes believes Carlton midfielder Sam Walsh winning Mark of the Year was a big mistake.
“I’m fired up about the Mark of the Year. Jeremy Howe takes that Sam Walsh Mark of the Year 15 times a year,” he said.
“That is a great mark, a courageous mark, an exceptional mark for a wingman to take … but that is not the Mark of the Year.
“That had to be a Bobby Hill, Jeremy McGovern took a great one, Charlie Cameron took a great one, Easton Wood took a nice high flying mark.
“I think it’s the worst Mark of the Year we’ve ever had. Fischer McAsey took a more courageous mark going back with the flight.
“Nothing against Walsh, it surprised me that mark, but if you’re going to give Mark of the Year to a courageous mark, it has to be exceptional. It has to be Nick Riewoldt or Jonathan Brown.
“It can’t just be your regulation back into a pack and taking a pretty straightforward mark that Jeremy Howe takes every week.”