Sandover Medal PreviewMonday, September 21, 2015 - 1:00 PM - by Chris Pike

THREE players who could have comfortably stayed on AFL lists longer appear the most likely chances of winning the Sandover Medal as the WAFL's fairest and best player on Monday night, but it appears a wide open race with up to a dozen players with a genuine chance to win.

The Sandover Medal count for 2015 will be held this Monday night in the Grand Ball Room at Crown Perth with the event broadcast live on radio via 91.3 SportFM from 6.30pm while the count will also be streamed live online from 8.15pm at www.thewest.com.au

South Fremantle's Ashton Hams, Swan Districts' Ryan Davis and Subiaco's Sam Menegola are three players to have standout seasons in the WAFL to appear among the fancied candidates to win the 2015 Sandover Medal.

However, those three former AFL-listed players are far from the only ones with a chance with Claremont's Corey Yeo and Ryan Neates, East Perth's Steven Payne, Brendan Lee and Paul Johnson, Peel Thunder's Jacob Ballard, Perth's Aidan Tropiano, Subiaco's Chris Phelan or West Perth's Andrew Strijk and Shane Nelson among the others expected to poll well.

The only previous Sandover Medal winner likely to be at or near the top of the vote count by the end of the night is last year's victor Aaron Black, but the West Perth premiership player accepted a reprimand throughout the season ruling him ineligible to go back-to-back.

The other player ineligible who could poll strongly is Subiaco midfielder and first-year recruit Leigh Kitchin, who has had an outstanding season with the Lions averaging 22.8 disposals a game and being rewarded with selection in the WA team that beat South Australia at Lathlain Park.

The 2013 Sandover Medallist Rory O'Brien could very well end up being East Fremantle's leading vote winner, but given the Sharks won just one of their last 14 games he is unlikely to be in serious contention despite another strong season as captain in a difficult year.

Black and O'Brien are the only two past winners still playing in the WAFL in 2015 so it does appear there will be a new Sandover Medal winner come Monday night.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the count is going to be how the umpires recognised the performances of Subiaco's Menegola.

Injuries curtailed his time in the AFL both at Hawthorn and Fremantle, and again it was injury that meant he didn’t make his Subiaco debut until Round 11 but once he did he delivered some outstanding performances to make him a genuine contender despite playing just 12 games.

Menegola could very well poll at least six best on ground performances and then deserves to be in contention for votes in up 10 of his 12 matches for this season.

Given his ability to rack up possessions in the midfield, to break the lines and go forward to kick goals, he did emerge as perhaps the best player in the competition and now it's a matter of if he played enough games or not.

A Sandover Medal would only add to the remarkable to career that Ashton Hams has had with South Fremantle that already includes two premierships, a grand final and state game Simpson Medal, life membership at the Bulldogs and two appearances for WA.

He comfortably could have played more than his 37 AFL games with West Coast as well, but he now looms as a genuine Sandover Medal candidate after a consistently strong season.

The left-footer didn’t have a game of less than 17 possessions, had nine games with 30 disposals or more, and his finish to the season was especially remarkable averaging 33 touches in the last 10 games. He is a proven vote winner as well polling 30 last year despite being ineligible.

Swan Districts' Davis is another one that if he had remained on West Coast's list longer he might have become a long-time AFL player, but it didn’t happen and he has now become an outstanding servant at Swans and 2015 is likely his best season.

Davis spent the majority of the season as a permanent midfielder for the first time in his career after usually playing either off half-back or half-forward with occasional stints on the ball.

The result was that he laid 117 tackles for the season to be the best pressure player in the competition on top of being an outstanding field kick, still booting 24 goals and averaging 20.8 disposals a game.

The 2010 premiership player polled well last year with 33 votes, but his 2015 season has arguably been better and he could very well add a Sandover Medal to the Simpson Medal he's already won this year.

West Perth's Shane Nelson is another who is a proven vote winner having finished runner-up to Black last year with 46 votes, and now despite being hampered by ankle injury over the last month, he had at least the equal of his 2014 season this year, or perhaps even better.

Despite being regularly tagged, Nelson was able to average 29.2 possessions a game and after winning West Perth's last two fairest and best awards, the Sandover Medal could very well be in his sights.

His teammate Andrew Strijk has long been acknowledged as perhaps the most damaging and effective player in the competition, but that hasn’t translated into Sandover Medal votes and remarkably he had just two in 2014.

He has had another outstanding season in 2015 as a match-winner whether off half-back, on the wing or at half-forward, and he certainly deserves to be high up on the final tally board.

Subiaco's Chris Phelan has hard a tremendously consistent season in a side that finished four games clear on top of the ladder, and given he has averaged 24 possessions a game, there's every chance he will poll well.

Claremont's pair Ryan Neates and Corey Yeo were both prolific ball winners in the midfield in the Tigers' run into the finals so it wouldn’t surprise to see them in contention as well.

The other interesting one will be Perth's Aidan Tropiano who was clearly the Demons best player in the midfield averaging 32.5 possessions a game.

He never had a game of less than 28 disposals and had over 30 on 15 occasions, but whether or not he will get enough top votes given Perth won just twice remains to be seen.

In his favour will be the fact that he will have a host of games where he is the only Demons player any chance of voting so given he's the best player in the worst performing team in the league might work in his favour.

Peel Thunder made the finals for the first time in 2015 and the keys to that were their ball-winning midfielders Jacob Ballard, Brendon Jones, Connor Blakely, Ed Langdon and Lachie Weller. All could pick up plenty of votes, but none might end up getting enough to win.

East Perth hasn’t delivered a Sandover Medallist since Ryan Turnbull in 2001, but Craig Glancy, Craig Wulff, Brendan Lee, Paul Johnson, Brent Cowell and Pat Travers have been among the good vote winners in that time.

Again the Royals have several possible winners led by co-captain Lee who has been outstanding this year once again, particularly in the run home to the finals.

He ended up averaging 30 touches in the last five games as East Perth qualified for the finals, and after polling 25 votes in 14 games last year, in 17 matches this year he could end up with enough to win.

Payne averaged 25 possessions and picked up 34 votes last year, and now in 2015 he hasn’t been far off with 23.6 disposals and could poll strongly again as could the league's best ruckman Johnson who has been a tower of strength again for East Perth.

RYAN NEATES (Claremont)
20 games, 478 possessions, 5 goals, 91 marks, 67 tackles
Possible votes in: 9 matches (Rounds 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20)
Games missed: 0
Votes in 2014: 34
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 5

COREY YEO (Claremont)
17 games, 457 possessions, 6 goals, 51 marks, 71 tackles
Possible votes in: 12 matches (Rounds 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
Games missed: 3
Votes in 2014: 0
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 9

BRENDAN LEE (East Perth)
17 games, 430 possessions, 12 goals, 84 marks, 62 tackles
Possible votes in: 14 matches (Rounds 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23)
Games missed: 3
Votes in 2014: 25
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 10

STEVEN PAYNE (East Perth)
20 games, 472 possessions, 7 goals, 98 marks, 44 tackles
Possible votes in: 12 matches (Rounds 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 16, 19, 20, 21)
Games missed: 0
Votes in 2014: 34
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 6

JACOB BALLARD (Peel Thunder)
20 games, 552 possessions, 7 goals, 86 marks, 72 tackles
Possible votes in: 13 matches (Rounds 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23)
Games missed: 0
Votes in 2014: 8
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 5

AIDAN TROPIANO (Perth)
20 games, 650 possessions, 3 goals, 78 marks, 102 tackles
Possible votes in: 15 matches (Rounds 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23)
Games missed: 0
Votes in 2014: 3
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 9

ASHTON HAMS (South Fremantle)
19 games, 568 possessions, 11 goals, 94 marks, 85 tackles, 66 free kicks
Possible votes in: 15 matches (Rounds 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23)
Games missed: 1
Votes in 2014: 30
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 8

SAM MENEGOLA (Subiaco)
12 games, 352 possessions, 20 goals, 66 marks, 54 tackles
Possible votes in: 10 matches (Rounds 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23)
Games missed: 8
Votes in 2014: 1
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 9

CHRIS PHELAN (Subiaco)
20 games, 480 possessions, 13 goals, 57 marks, 88 tackles
Possible votes in: 12 matches (Rounds 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22)
Games missed: 0
Votes in 2014: 11
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 9

RYAN DAVIS (Swan Districts)
20 games, 416 possessions, 24 goals, 98 marks, 117 tackles
Possible votes in: 13 matches (Rounds 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21)
Games missed: 0
Votes in 2014: 33
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 9

ANDREW STRIJK (West Perth)
18 games, 386 possessions, 11 goals, 124 marks
Possible votes in: 11 matches (Rounds 2, 3, 4, 8, 11, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 24)
Games missed: 2
Votes in 2014: 2
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 7

SHANE NELSON (West Perth)
18 games, 526 possessions, 6 goals, 40 marks, 69 tackles
Possible votes in: 12 matches (Rounds 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18)
Games missed: 2
Votes in 2014: 46
Times named in wafl.com.au Team of the Week: 9