Mulrooney Medalist Will Griggs was a "shocked" winner of AFL Canberra's top individual honour this season, but says he will always remember 2021 as the one that got away for the Queanbeyan Tigers.
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Griggs was awarded the Medal on Sunday night, voted best and fairest in the league which was ended prematurely due to Canberra's COVID-enforced lockdown.
The defending premier Tigers were sitting atop the ladder with 10 wins from 11 matches, and appeared to be marching towards back-to-back titles before COVID returned to Canberra.
And while the premiership eluded the Tigers, the club cleaned up at at the Facebook awards ceremony on Sunday night, with forward Andrew Swan also claiming the goalkicking award named after Kevin Neale, after booting 48 majors in just nine matches.
"I was watching the league [NRL grand final] but was having a little look every now and then hoping some of my teammates might go close to winning it," Griggs said.
"Once my name came out a couple of times, I was a little bit shocked."
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The 31-year-old returned to the Tigers from the Griffith Swans last season, and was a key part of their premiership winning team in 2020.
He polled 17 votes in this year's Mulrooney Medal count, finishing a clear winner from Ainslie's Leyton Chisholm (13), and Belconnen's Luke Wharton (12).
Griggs's Tigers teammates Lachlan Highfield (9) and Jacob May (8) rounded out the top four.
Tigers duo Adrian Pavese and Kade Klemke were named coaches of the year, after a successful tweak of their partnership before the start of the 2021 season.
"It was great working with Pav this year," Klemke said.
"With any good coaching, it's got to become less about you and more about the people you're serving."
Ainslie's Britt Tully won the women's top grade best and fairest medal, after knocking back an AFLW contract extension with the GWS Giants to focus on the Tricolours.
Tully's team was on top before the lockdown.
