Bears, oh my! Shepparton scoops major awards at Goulburn Valley League best-and-fairest event

With Shepparton’s senior footballers advancing to their first grand final in six years barely 24 hours prior at Rochester’s expense, the club was certainly on a high entering grand final week.

If you happen to belong to the Bears organisation, chances are Monday night’s proceedings were even sweeter.

The competition’s most prestigious footballing accolade, the Morrison Medal for senior best-and-fairest, went to dominant Shepparton big man Ash Holland, capping a remarkably successful return to the region’s premier division in 2024.

It was a campaign that will go down as nothing short of tremendous for Holland, whether his side claims the ultimate prize in Sunday’s grand final or not — but the count was not easily won.

Holland had to hold off Rochester midfield ace Mitch Trewhella, with whom he had to tangle on the Deakin turf the day prior, in a tight two-horse race to the end.

His 25 votes managed to overcome the Tigers dynamo by the slimmest of margins, with some comfortable breathing room ahead of Swans gun Zac Alderton, who rounded out the podium with 20.

With that result, a drought spanning six years was broken as Holland became the first Bear to take out local football’s top gong since Nik Rokahr in the famous 2018 premiership year.

Completing the Morrison’s top five — technically six, with fifth place split in this case — was one of Holland’s main midfield allies in Adam De Cicco with 19 votes before a pair of talls in Rochester’s Mitch Cricelli and Benalla’s Mark Marriott finished locked at 17 apiece.

The Wellman Family Medal count looked wide open for a large chunk of the night as well, with last year’s runner-up Elsie Boyer of Tatura gunning for one better in 2024.

Boyer ultimately fell away though, finishing six votes adrift of dominant Shepparton goaler Kim Borger, who won the count with a brilliant haul of 30.

The highly-pedigreed Shepparton goaler finished with an outstanding bag of 809 for the year, her offensive output second only to Euroa’s Olivia Morris — who finished fifth in the count — and well clear of the competition below.

Mooroopna, who had fallen short of a grand final berth at the hands of Euroa the previous day, nonetheless took both other places in the top three as midcourter Mia Fallon finished second with 28, while imposing defender Caitlin McLachlan took third after polling 25.

The Bears’ bounty was far from done there either, with Rowan Hiscock claiming the Abikhair Medal in reserves football while Jensen Dowling took home the Pattison Medal in the under-18s at a landslide margin of nine votes.