2024 Nola Marino Medal: Josh Kempton takes a look at five of the top contenders

Ahead of the 2024 Nola Marino Medal being awarded on Friday night, Josh Kempton takes a look at five of the leading contenders for the South West Football League’s women’s best and fairest award. Katie-Jayne Grieve (Busselton) Hard-nosed Busselton midfielder Katie-Jayne Grieve will come into the night as the red-hot favourite to win her second Nola Marino Medal. After claiming the 2022 award with 30 votes, she fell just short of going back-to-back with the same number of votes last year, finishing only one vote behind Donnybrook’s Jessica Verbrugge. But Verbrugge played only the back half of this season due to WAFLW commitments with East Perth, paving the way for Grieve to join her as the only two-time winner of the medal. Far and away the league’s hardest player to stop when the ball is up for grabs, Grieve — who played a combined 16 AFLW games for Carlton and Fremantle between 2018 and 2021 — always leaves an imprint on any game by superbly balancing her offensive capabilities with hard defensive work. Trinity Brown (Harvey Bulls) One of the driving forces behind a strong Harvey Bulls home and away season which saw the minor premiers lose only one game was dynamic midfielder Trinity Brown. Brown was the standout feature of a strong Bulls midfield corps with her power, regularly showcasing her ability to run and carry the ball out of stoppage situations and drive her team forward by winning clearances. Teammates Rachel Wright, who finished third in last year’s count, and Caitlin Shales, who finished second on the goal-kicking charts, will also attract votes for the Bulls but there should be plenty to go around after their strong campaign. Daisy Rigby (Bunbury) The competition’s leading goal-kicker Daisy Rigby, who slotted 40 goals in the home and away season to finish nine clear of Shales, is every chance of featuring prominently in the count. With four bags of five goals and one haul of six in individual games this year, she is likely to rack up some three-vote games which would go a long way towards helping her win the award. How the umpires assess Rigby’s season against that of her captain Sarina Tassone, who kicked 27 majors of her own while playing higher up the ground, will be fascinating. Shelby Foster (Dunsborough) Dunsborough’s rise up the ladder from ninth in 2023 to fifth this season could see their captain Shelby Foster, who polled 19 votes to finish sixth last year, have every chance of shooting up the leaderboard this time around. The Sharks’ captain is at the heart of everything they do through the midfield, meaning she is never far from the eyes of the umpires. Her side’s indifferent form through the back half of the year means she will likely need to poll well in the five consecutive wins they started the season with to put herself in the mix. Poppy Stockwell (Bunbury) Poppy Stockwell only joined the competition at the halfway point of the season after the conclusion of her WAFLW duties with South Fremantle, but she was arguably the competition’s best player from that point. A dynamic presence across half-forward, she kicked 17 goals in her eight games while setting up countless others for teammates with her superb foot skills. Giving the rest of the competition an eight-game head start will likely prove too large of a gap to bridge but she could feature as prominently as any player in the back half of the count. Josh Kempton’s predictions 1st: Katie-Jayne Grieve (Busselton) 2nd: Trinity Brown (Harvey Bulls) 3rd: Daisy Rigby (Bunbury) Roughie: Poppy Stockwell (Bunbury)