Who's the man of this league? - It could be Drmic, Stepney, Forbes, Jenkins, Olbrich, Mays or a dark horse - the race for the mens is too tight to call...
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A huge thankyou to our experts, the commentators of the NBL1 Central that cast their own 3-2-1 each match of the season to help with the predictions below for the award…
Previous Decade Winners
2013 Daniel Johnson (West Adelaide)
2014 Alex Starling (Woodville)
2015 Matthew Lycett (Norwood)
2016 Nelson Kirksey (Woodville)
2017 Eian Davis (South Adelaide)
2018 Alexander Starling (North Adelaide)
2019 CJ Turnage (Southern Tigers)
2021 CJ Turnage (Norwood Flames)
2022 Jeremy Smith (South Adelaide)
Did you know???
In the Mens the club the most Woollacott medals have been won by Sturt who were also United Church prior to 1972 with 12, West Adelaide and Norwood with 11. Out of the 10 current clubs, everyone has posted a winner with Steve Brekke the least recent club player to win it for Central District Lions way back in 1984. The biggest multiple winner of the Woollacott is “Chairman of the Boards” himself Mark Davis who has won it five times between 1986 and 1992 including a tie with former 36ers teammate Mike McKay in 1987. There have also been 14 back-to-back winners of the award with the most recent CJ Turnage in 2019 and 2021 and the first Don Collins for West Torrens in 1951.
The Favourites
Anthony Drmic (West Adelaide Bearcats)
Drmic whose last appearance in the league was with the Southern Tigers in 2019 was cruelled with injury but in 2023 having played a majority of the season he’s a front runner in the award. Drmic played 15 games this season and our experts expect he’ll poll very strongly in at least twelve of those games. The obvious part of this count is that he’s got a few teammates that can pinch votes off him – but was one of the few to have standout stat lines on many of those nights.
Jawan Stepney (Woodville Warriors)
There’s always a favourite that may have not too many votes taken off him plus won a few games off his own back – that’s Jawan Stepney in 2023. The fact the Warriors have made the finals too suggests they’ve won enough games where he was clearly the best on court those evenings. I expect he’ll poll in twelve games as well as Drmic.
Jordan Forbes (Sturt Sabres)
Probably the import recruit of the season in the men’s and what a subtle quietly executed contract it was from the Sturt Sabres. Forbes is in the numbers literally every game nearly averaging a triple double most nights. As a result, that gives him around anywhere between ten to twelve games where he may have polled votes.
The Smokeys
Lachlan Olbrich (West Adelaide Bearcats)
The late start did not slow this man down who is a previous vote getter having been selected for all-star five and winner of last year’s Frank Angove medal. He’s likely to steal votes off his teammates in Drmic and Mitch McCarron producing from Round 4 at least thirteen games where he had large numbers across all areas – it could come down to the final game against the Tigers to see where the UC Riverside product finishes.
Greg Mays (Forestville Eagles)
Another year and another Greg Mays smokey prediction but that’s how highly underrated the Eagles power forward/centre is. He has history with votes having we think polled many over his career but this year particularly he’s been a big part of the Eagles being right up the top of the table. Difference this year is I think he’s polled in close to ten games at least including a couple of big votes in losses for the Eagles. As is normally the case the likes of Adam Doyle, Brad Rathjen, Malith Machar and Jake Rios may grab a few off him as well.
Durrell McDonald (North Adelaide Rockets)
When the Rockets started to get going it was through “Nugget” and he no doubt started to catch the eye of the officials. McDonald had a huge second half of the season stats wise and in the Rockets performances was 17.3 points, 6.6 assists and 5.3 rebounds. He’s likely to poll in seven of the back nine games and come home with a flurry.
Keep An Eye on
Branden Jenkins (Central Districts Lions)
Games won by Centrals is the big factor here, but Jenkins will still poll very strongly having always stayed amongst the best players nightly. Twelve games look at the likely votes coming his way – the knock those losses and whether he still got enough recognition with plenty of two votes coming his way in lost causes.
Alex Starling (South Adelaide Panthers)
Historically polls well being a two-time Woollacott Medal winner – the fairytale of him winning three would be a headline. He’s got some competition from Daniel Johnson who also could produce a story of his own winning it ten years later after his one with West Adelaide in 2013. Starling played 15 games this year and bar one or two games probably polled votes in everyone.
Trey “Walter” McBride (Norwood Flames)
Late arrival but certainly not on the vote train with McBride likely to come home strong like his Flames did in 2023. All his votes come second half of the season, but he was likely to have polled in eight of the nine games
The Winner is… Jawan Stepney
Team has made the finals and will poll a consistent three votes in their wins – always catches the eye of the officials and no one is stealing votes off him you’d think…
We are back to doing recaps for the NBL, Catch all the NBL1 Central action this weekend on the NBL1 website, app and game of the week in First Round of the finals between the Forestville Eagles Men and the Sturt Sabres Men on Kayo and Kayo Freebies this weekend.
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