Impressive five-eighth Caleb Reedy has stormed home convincingly to win the Ken Allen Medal on 26 votes, eight votes ahead of his nearest rivals.
Polling 16 votes between rounds 8 and 14, Reedy built on a slow start of the season to all but assure himself of victory before the voting went dark, with nearest competitor Kieran Tarrant sadly succumbing to injury in Round 15.
Reedy would poll the six votes necessary to stave off nearest competition, despite the best efforts of surprise packet Cairo Takarangi from the Kalamunda Bulldogs.
In addition to WA Rugby League’s highest honor, the Joondalup Giants star also picked up the highest goal scorer award with 67 goals for the season and highest point scorer with 190 points in total.
Jordan Pereira was named highest try scorer in the 2014 Smarter than Smoking Premiership with 19 tries to snatch away hope of a rare clean sweep of all the first grade season awards.
North Beach’s Joshua Rogers made good on his first year in the Smarter than Smoking Premiership by taking home the Life Members’ Rising Star award, and Samson Graham along with Melissa Thomas were named as State Representative players of the year in a clean sweep for the Fremantle Roosters.
Rising Star Josh Rogers with Life Member Mark Williams
Abbie Williams of North Beach and Chris Sanders of Fremantle were also honoured for their efforts over the season by being named Volunteers of the year.
Jayden Love ensured a Joondalup first-reserve grade double, being named co-winner of the Reserve Grade player of the year, with Rockingham Sharks’ Damian Hamlyn.
Love would also take home highest try scorer and point scorer with South Perth’s Antony Piggott nicking the goal scorer’s top gong.
In the Under 18’s, despite Rockingham rampaging home in the season proper, it was all South Perth and Kalamunda with Akua Robert winning highest goals and points scorer for the Lions, with Henry Fui and Brandan Rawiri collecting the highest try scorer and player of the year respectfully.
In the first year back for the Third Grade competition, Dylan King cleaned the pool, sharing highest goal scorer with Willagee’s Nicholas Thomas whilst claiming highest points and player of the year outright.
Gene Carmichael won highest try scorer over the course of the season after stellar performances for the Kalamunda Bulldogs.
And in Women’s League Tag, Fremantle’s Lauren Chambers won all three of the scoring awards but it would be Bobbie Barker of the Kalamunda Bulldogs who took home the big prize in that competition.
On a club note, South Perth took home the Club Championship after consistent performances among all grades of WA Rugby League competition.
And to wrap up the night, the BLK team of the year was announced, with each of the players presented with their own customised limited edition jersey.
See below for the full BLK team of the year:
Jordan Stringer – Fremantle
Harry Debique – South Perth
Isaac Thomas – South Perth
Ben Taylor – North Beach
Jordan Pereira – Willagee
Caleb Reedy – Joondalup
Jarek Goebel – Willagee
Kale Burton – South Perth
Cairo Takarangi – Kalamunda
Kieran Tarrant – North Beach
Delane Edwards – Fremantle
Ryan Wilson – Rockingham
Samson Graham – Fremantle
Coach: Justin Nixon – South Perth
Our celebrity guest for the evening was Nathan Hindmarsh who entertained the crowd and took many pictures with fans and the State of Origin shield.
Pictures courtesy of Tom Campbell – Total Sports Photography