A handful of Peel Thunderbirds took home some shiny new silverware at the West Australian Women’s Football League awards presentations on Monday night.
Jacklyn Atkinson topped the vote count in the Rogers Cup (youth girls) best and fairest award after leading her side to an undefeated season and a grand final berth, while Kira Phillips had her outstanding year at the top level recognised when she was presented with the Joanne Huggins leading goal scorer award.
Phillips nailed 78 majors to top the field, while fellow Thunderbird Narelle McIntyre led all scorers in the reserves with 40 goals.
Rounding out the night for the Thunderbirds was Ashlee Sidebottom, who continued to show she’s a player to watch in the future by claiming the reserves rising star award.
The quartet of Thunderbirds all played key roles in getting all three sides to the finals, with the youth girls and reserves set to play for a premiership this coming weekend.
Head coach Mark Fenton piled praise on the four award winners.
“They’ve all had fantastic seasons and they’re all vital parts of our footy club, so to see them get that recognition from the league is really great,” he said.
“[Jacklyn] captained our youth girls to a grand final and hopefully will captain them to a premiership, so for her to take a fairest and best award is fantastic.
“We couldn’t be more proud of all of them.”
The Thunderbirds also featured heavily in the reserves and league fairest and best counts.
Phillips, Sabreena Duffy and Katie Grieve all finished in the top 10 of the league voting, which was topped by Subiaco Titan and AFL Women’s star Hayley Miller, while Sidebottom and Hereripene Williams (runner up) came close to the reserves crown.
Shantae Freeman finished top 10 in the Rogers Cup count.
Peel’s reserves and Rogers Cup sides will take to the turf at Claremont Oval this weekend as they take on Claremont and East Fremantle in their respective grand finals.
The league squad just missed out on playing for a premiership, going down to Subiaco in the preliminary final last weekend.