Max Holmes has created history by becoming the youngest player to win two Carji Greeves medals as Geelong’s best-and-fairest.
The speedster, who turned 23 in late August, polled 175 votes in tonight’s count at Crown Palladium in Melbourne, beating recruit Bailey Smith – who missed two matches – by 20 votes on 155.
Coleman medallist Jeremy Cameron was ten votes further back on 145 to record a third-place finish for the second straight year.
Tom Atkins (141 votes) and two-time winner Mark Blicavs (122) rounded out the top five.
After five rounds of counting, Holmes and Atkins shared the lead on 32 votes, one clear of Smith on 31, with Brad Close a vote further back on 30 votes.
When the next leaderboard was revealed after Round 11, Smith had jumped to 82 votes, 17 clear of Holmes.
After Round 18, Holmes had regained the lead, moving to 111 votes, 12 ahead of Smith on 99.
Holmes, who becomes the 12th Cat to win the Carji in consecutive years, averaged a career-high 26.9 disposals and attracted votes in every game.
He was given top votes in five games, including against Brisbane in Round 3 and the Grand Final, Gold Coast (Round 13), Essendon (Round 14), and Port Adelaide (Round 21).
Earlier in the night, Atkins and Blicavs shared the Tom Harley Best Club Person accolade, with Atkins claiming the award for the fourth consecutive year.
Defender Connor O’Sullivan, who finished fifth in the AFL’s Rising Star award, was named Best Young Player, and Shaun Mannagh was acknowledged as the Carter Family Community Champion.
THE VOTING SYSTEM
After each game, the Senior and Assistant Coaches review and rate each player’s performance on a scale of 0 to 10. Votes are only polled in games where a player’s performance has been deemed of a high quality by the coaching group. All matches are counted towards their final total.
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