Former Robe footballer and current Adelaide Crows captain Jordan Dawson has made history as the first ever joint winner of Adelaide’s Malcom Blight Medal after a thrilling vote count went right down to the final round.
Dawson and Ben Keays were tied going into the last game of the season against Sydney, and both polled five votes to share the Crows’ Club Champion Award with 107 votes.
Young midfielder Jake Soligo capped a breakout season by finishing runner-up on 93 votes, and fellow young gun Max Michalanney (89 votes) and Lucindale’s Darcy Fogarty (87 votes) polled strongly to complete the top five.
It is Dawson’s second consecutive gold jacket after his triumph last year.
Second-year skipper Dawson, 27, continued to be deployed through the midfield and his class again shone by averaging 24.5 disposals, three clearances and six tackles a game.
Dawson made his move in the middle part of the season as Adelaide recorded wins over Carlton, North Melbourne and Port Adelaide and by Round 11 he led from Soligo, Matt Crouch and Izak Rankine.
By Round 16 Keays was fifth – 17 votes behind Dawson – before producing a huge finish to the season where he averaged 18.5 disposals and kicked a goal in each of the last nine games.
Nothing separated the pair in the final round of the year with Keays and Dawson sharing the Malcolm Blight Medal.
Dawson also claimed the Players’ Trademark Award and Soligo the Mark Bickley Emerging Talent Award, while Fogarty won the Leading Goal Kicker Award for the first time after booting a career-high 41 goals.
