Shane Edwards was a proud man after becoming the first Indigenous player to win the Yiooken Award for being best-on-ground in the annual ‘Dreamtime at the G’ clash.
The talented Richmond playmaker was the unanimous best afield choice of the expert panel of three – Matthew Richardson, Sam Lane and Gilbert McAdam – who cast their votes for the 2018 Yiooken Medal.
Edwards finished the match with a career-high, game-high 31 disposals, including a game-high 12 score involvements, a game-high four goals assists, two goals, plus a game-high 685 metres gained, in the Tigers’ 71-point victory over Essendon.
“You never want to go out to win individual awards. I’m just really lucky to win one of these. I’ve always wanted to . . . There’s tons of guys in the side that could have won it tonight. I was pretty lucky,” a typically humble Edwards told Channel Seven post-match.
The 29-year-old veteran of 218 games with Richmond is in AFL career-best form.
He’s averaging 19.6 disposals per match and is ranked No. 1 in the competition for goal assists and No. 4 for score involvements.
One of his goal assists in last night’s Dreamtime game is a strong contender for the best of the season.
As Mitch Cleary reported for afl.com.au: “Richmond's goal assist king Shane Edwards put in a nomination for set-up of the year, as he dominated the second term. He picked up 12 disposals, three inside 50s and kicked two goals, but it was his assist to Josh Caddy nearing half-time that came from the bottom of his trick bag. Appearing to have overrun the ball, Edwards then soccer-flicked the ball to a rampaging Caddy, who converted from beyond 50 metres. It helped Caddy to one of four goals for the game and Richmond to its highest first-half score of the season . . .”
2018 Yiokeen Medal voting details
Matthew Richardson
3 – Shane Edwards
2 – Josh Caddy
1 – Dustin Martin
Sam Lane
3 – Shane Edwards
2 – Alex Rance
1 – Dustin Martin
Gilbert McAdam
3 – Shane Edwards
2 – Josh Caddy
1 – Alex Rance
Total
9 – Edwards
4 – Caddy
3 – Rance
2 – Martin
