Lockington Bamawm United ruckman Tyler Phillips was crowned the Heathcote District League's football best and fairest at last Monday night's virtual vote count.
Phillips backed up a strong 2019 season — placing third that year — with a stellar 2021 campaign as one of the competition's dominant big men.
With White Hills star Sam Kerridge leading for much of the night, Phillips came home strong in a final-round thriller to finish on 18 votes — winning by one, ahead of Kerridge and Colbinabbin's Lochie Sirrett.
Watching on from home, Phillips said he wasn't expecting to see his name atop the final leaderboard.
"I thought I would do okay, but wouldn't go that high," he said.
"I thought I had a better year in 2019; I was in and out here and there but I was consistent enough to poll some votes.
"Once we went through White Hills and Colbo's games and Lochie and Sam didn't get anything, I did the math in my head and looked around a bit shocked.
"Mum was jumping around and happy."
After missing round one of the season through injury, Phillips was one of the headline acts of a star-studded Cats midfield, one that would prove insurmountable for the rest of the HDFNL season.
LBU went through the season undefeated, and were widely tipped to continue that trend into the now-cancelled finals series.
Phillips paid tribute to his club and teammates, one of whom he had tipped to take out the league's top individual honour.
"I just wanted to thank the team. An individual accolade is good but it's a team award as well," Phillips said.
"I thought Jarod Bacon was a standout. Bart (Phillips) and even Jeremy Mundie were going to poll pretty well.
"We had a lot of good players and we're all a pretty tight-knit group. It's been a really fun year."
Bacon, booting 36 goals for the year rotating through the midfield and forward line, also featured in the Cheatley top 10.
In other results, Heathcote’s Brooke Bolton took out the Esther Cheatley A-grade netball best and fairest with 20 votes, pipping new league life member Olivia McEvoy of Colbinabbin.
The reserves best and fairest went the way of Mount Pleasant's Jackson Hufer, while Heathcote's Victor Butler was the runaway winner of the under-18 count.
Sophie Alford (North Bendigo) won the A-reserve netball award, Kealy Tupper (Mount Pleasant) claimed B-grade honours and Madi Cliff (Elmore) won B-reserve.
Elmore took out both the football and netball rising stars, with Mitchell Cricelli and Cayde Hayes taking out the respective awards.
In the junior ranks, Elmore netballer Remy Cowan finished off a strong season by taking home the under-15 best and fairest medal.
Leitchville-Gunbower netballer Maddison Elliott capped off a strong season by taking out the HDFNL's under-17 netball best and fairest with 25 votes.
The defender was also named in the league's representative side.
Teammate Shona Hore placed third with 17 votes, also earning representative honours in a season where both players guided their side to an 11-win season.
Bombers footballer Harry Wright was joint runner-up in the under-18s best and fairest count with 13 votes, with teammate Oskar Smartt one behind him in fourth.
L-G sharpshooter James Barratt came second in the under-18s goal-kicking with 36 majors for the season.
Life membership was also awarded to Leitchville-Gunbower stalwart Lee Pollock, 200-game A-grade netballer Olivia McEvoy and North Bendigo's Aaryn Craig.
There was also a pause in the vote count to acknowledge popular LBU player and community member Amee Hardess, following her recent passing.