above: Senior Men's Best & Fairest Jai Florent with Coach Josh Bourke & President Nick Heath
The B.F.C.'s 'Best & Fairest' Awards - A fitting end to a Premiership winning
season
It was a packed house at Sandy By The Bay on Thursday last as the BFC held its Best & Fairest Presentation Night for the seven Senior teams, as well as our two very special perpetual 'Mateship' awards. There were also Life Memberships bestowed upon three tireless long-time contributors to the BFC.
It was fitting that the B&F event was staged at the Sandy Footy Club, the setting for the winning Grand Final only 5 days earlier and as is the case having seven Senior teams, getting a ticket was very difficult.
The big winners of the night were Jai Florent - ‘Mick Kirkby’ Trophy (Senior Men’s), Sunday Hollingsworth – ‘Kate Hore’ Medal (Senior Women’s) and Mitch Davidson - Damien Guidolin Trophy (U19s).
Jai had a tremendous first half of the season, polling consistently in most games and despite missing a couple of games towards the end, had enough votes to be a convincing winner. Jai is a goal scoring midfielder with exceptional pace. He had an outstanding finals series and is a deserved winner of the ‘Mick Kirkby’ trophy.
‘Kate Hore’ medal winner Sunday Hollingsworth has been an outstanding prospect from the day she joined the club last year. New to the game, it took VAFA only 5 rounds in 2024 to recognise Sunday’s talent when she was awarded the VAFA Round 5 ‘Rising Star’ award. In 2025 the move up to Premier A only inspired Sunday to get even better. Like her famous sister Claudia, Sunday has pace to burn and carries the ball with effortless ease. The footy world is at her feet.
Mitch Davidson started his career at the BFC in the Under 8’s and has played 152 games for the club since 2014. He has represented the VAFA U19s rep team for the past 2 seasons and tasted senior footy last year, making his Senior debut. Despite breaking his leg towards the latter part of this season, Mitch had enough votes to seal the coveted 'Damien Guidolin' Trophy. Well done Mitch.
Charlie Wilce and Sophie Keogh won their respective ‘Spirit of Mateship awards, the 'Tim Russell Memorial Award' and the 'Holly Bowles & Bianca Jones Memorial Award'.
Holly and Bianca’s Mums, Sam and Michelle, delivered a heartfelt thank you in their presentation to Sophie, who was a close friend of both girls. Sophie’s award was accepted by her Mum.
Similarly, Mick Millar reminded the audience what a special young man Tim Russell was and that his love of footy and the BFC will be forever commemorated through this award.
Lee Young, Richard Evans and Peter Caswell were awarded Life Memberships for their commitment to the club over many years.
The much-admired Lee Young was recognised for her tireless work in Football Operations at a Junior and Senior level, as well as long time Junior Events co-ordinator. Her work at Senior level has been without peer, be it Registrations, Team Management, Match Day Operations and VAFA liaison. When she’s not doing all that, she’ll be running water.
Richard Evans was acknowledged for his long-time commitment to Sponsorship, Membership and Club Operations. There’s not much at the club Richard hasn’t been involved with. He has been Coach, Assistant Coach, Team Manager and Bar Manager. In recent times Richard has been the central figure in Player Sponsorship and Social Membership.
Pete Caswell was recognised essentially for his work in the media, his photography and 9 years on the sponsorship committee. Pete set up the Club’s social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram and managed the club’s website page for the best part of a decade. His match day reports and newsletters were essential reading.
Many thanks to Nicki Spencer, Tracey Francis and Stephen Nash who presented the Life Memberships.
Recognition awards were presented to players who reached significant milestones, including Josh Trew, Andreas Baruhas and Sarah Collins for 100 games, Sarah being the first woman to bring up the ton. Popular players Cal Heath and James Taylor reached the 150 game milestone. Well done Chopper and JT!
Rep players Ben Seers and Mitch Davidson (U19s) along with Riley Virtue and Cal Linehan (Seniors) were also acknowledged.
Congratulations to all the winners and a special thank you to the event organisers Walter Tedde, Lani Hilford and Lee Young and to the friendly ‘Sandy By The Bay’ staff for their hospitality.
Check out all the results below & a number of photographs of all the recipients.
SENIOR MEN:
Best & Fairest - Jai Florent
Runner-Up B & F - Callum Heath
Third B & F - James Taylor
Most Consistent - Riley Virtue
Most Courageous - Charlie Wilce
Best In Finals - Callum Heath
SENIOR WOMEN:
Best & Fairest - Sunday Hollingsworth
Runner-Up B & F - Piper Phelan
Third B & F - Michelle Podnecky
Coaches Award: Leadership - Skye Shipton
Coaches Award: Best Team Player - Katelyn Randall
RESERVE MEN:
Best & Fairest - Josh Gorman
Runner-Up B & F - Andreas Baruhas
Third B & F - Oskar Phillips
Most Consistent - Campbell Tedde
Coaches Award: Best Team Player - Mason Cartwright
Most Improved - Angus Marcombe
RESERVE WOMEN:
Best & Fairest - Amy Pearce
Runner-Up B & F - Lara Barker
Third B & F - Pippi Barrow
Coaches Award: Leadership - Sophie Keogh
Coaches Award: Best Team Player - Lauren Howlett
U19 DIV.1:
Best & Fairest - Mitch Davidson
Runner-Up B & F - Angus Bowd
Third B & F - James Appel
Coaches Award - Darcy Richards
Coaches Award - Julian Stewart
Best In Finals - Ned Bodi
U19 DIV.3
Best & Fairest - Hugo Risvanis
Runner-Up B & F - Brandon Whyte
Third B & F - Huddy Czarnota
Player's Player Award - Harry Hurlston
Coaches Award - Finn Vorrath
Best In Finals - Riley Griffiths
YOUTH RESERVES:
Best & Fairest - Ethan Murray
equal Runner-Up B & F - Dylan Collins
equal Runner-Up B & F - Lachlan Rundmann
Coaches Award - Ben Gathercole
Coaches Award - Henry Mentiplay
CLUB AWARDS:
'Steve Caffyn Award': Best Club Person - Byron Hughes
'Tim Russell Memorial Award': Spirit of Mateship - Charlie Wilce
'Holly Bowles & Bianca Jones Memorial Award': Spirit of Mateship - Sophie Keogh
Kingston Trophies' Men's 'Rising Star Award' - Tom O'Rourke
Kingston Trophies' Women's 'Rising Star Award' - Lily Parsons
LIFE MEMBERSHIP:
Lee Young
Richard Evans
Peter Caswell
