The Defensive Player of the Year is likely to be one of the hotly contested awards this season with several worthy candidates in the running
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MVP
The Most Valuable Player Awards for the Premier League are determined by a system in which each team’s head coach allocates votes after each minor game of the season. After the completion of the minor rounds a list of the top 15 vote recipients is compiled, based on this voting system and sent to each team’s head coach who then allocates 3-2-1 votes to players for this award from that list.
Based on this here is the list of my candidates MVP for Womens and Mens
Womens
Brigitte-Lefebvre Okankwu
In all but four games she is likely to be ranked best on court for the Mavs making her a highly desirable MVP choice to her team and fits the description of the award.
Sam Simons
Potential double possibility of a dual medallist off the back of 13 best on court for the Eagle performances.
Mikayla Williams
Another potential dual medallist with the possibility of 11 best on courts for the Sabres.
Mens
Joel Spear
Again Spear’s value can’t be underestimated to his team and the league, particularly in wins I predict for him to grab best over half of the Sabres games.
Jeremy Smith
Will be getting plenty of threes from the coaches and the value is when he doesn’t have an impact, in the Panthers losses he’s got an average of 20.4 compared to his season average 26.6; that’s a valuable player to their team and the league.
Lachlan Olbrich
Was best on court for his team seven of his twelve games played and a close second in the others. Not only will he poll well in his games; he’s been the standout in his Tigers team this season.
Best Defensive Player of 2022
Womens
Kayla Mathews – Tough lock down defender and has nullified some of the league’s best
Jasmin Fejo – Huge improvement in defensive game and not only steals off her opponents but has blocked several this season at that end of the floor
Bella Stratford – Assigned to the opposition’s best guard and done some quality jobs shutting down some key players
Mens
Jawan Stepney – The steals he’s chalked up have been converted several times by Warriors offence
Trey “Walter” McBride – Gone toe-to-toe with some of the league’s best guards and setup from the defensive end of the floor his team extremely well
Alex Starling – Block parties and dominated rebounding at the defensive end of the floor
Youth Womens and Mens Medals
The Merv Harris (women) and Frank Angove (men) medals are presented to the NBL1 Central player aged Under 21 years on December 31 of the year in which the competition is played, who polls the highest number of votes towards the Halls or Woollacott medal.
Merv Harris (U21 Womens) Medal
Chloe Dumesny – Expect a set of votes in the second half of the season
Maddy Freer – The last three rounds could win it for her
Caitlin Dyer – Huge stretch from Round 12 could net her a bunch of votes
Frank Angove (U21 Mens) Medal
Lachlan Olbrich – Incredible season for his age; the very warm favourite
Luca Barei – Will poll some votes and be a strong second
Fiston Ipassou – Can he net votes with so many other guys around him, he’s been ultra-impressive in his return to the league though)
Coach of the Year
The “Coach of the Year” is awarded based on 3-2-1 votes by fellow coaches at the end of the minor rounds.
Womens
Kay-Lee Stuart – Taken the Bearcats back to the finals and top of the table.
Richard Dickel – Had plenty of things thrown at his team this season and still managed to steer them back to consecutive finals appearances.
Scott Herriman – Taken the Lions back to a competitive outfit all games in the season and to one of their most successful seasons in half a decade.
Mens
Scott Whitmore – A huge reason for the Warriors finishing top of the ladder and has balanced a very even squad.
Scott Ninnis – The Panthers first finals appearance in 14 years and been clutch in his calls from side-lines in red-time several times this season.
Dean Nyberg – Considering what they lost from their championship side, he’s managed to score back-to-back finals appearances and that should be recognised.
Phillip Yuill Medal
The “Referee of the Year” is awarded based on 3-2-1 votes by coaches at the end of the minor rounds.
Women – Danika Shepherd, Emma Caeron, Maddie Shaw
Men – Bailey Dyer, Nathan Davis, Brandon Doctor
All Star Five – These have been selected based on the most votes in their position in the medal with three guards and two forwards per team
Women
Alex Wilson
Jasmin Fejo
Sam Simons
Ash Spencer
Mikayla Williams
Men
Adam Doyle
Jeremy Smith
Jawan Stepney
Terry Winn
Alex Starling
We all wait with anticipation of Sunday afternoon to see who will be crowned for these awards and the prestigious Halls and Woollacott Medals.
We are back to doing recaps for the NBL, Catch all the NBL1 Central Finals action this weekend on the NBL1 website, app and game of the week.
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