A PAIR of Northern Beaches players are the toast of the AFL North Coast after they were named the competition’s Best & Fairest players for the 2021 season.

Due to COVID restrictions this year’s vote counts were held via live video on Facebook and at the end of the night it was Fraser Duryea and Gina Cardillo who were awarded the major prizes.

For Duryea, it was the second time he won the Brian Saville Medal for being the best player in the senior competition.

The victory saw him join a small but prestigious club as only the second player in the AFL North Coast’s 40-year history to win the award at two different clubs.

The key forward who this season enjoyed more time in the midfield first won the medal in 2016 when he was playing with the Coffs Breakers.

Duryea joins Troy Mirkin with the distinguished piece of history.

Mirkin won his first award in 1989 when he was a teenager playing at Grafton.

The second time he won was in 2001 when he was a key part of a dynamic North Coffs midfield.

Duryea finished with a final tally of 22 votes from the umpires.

Port Macquarie’s Braden Saggers was runner-up on 16 votes with Whalan a further four votes back in third position.

Last year’s runner-up Angus Anderson from Sawtell/Toormina finished in a tie for fourth position on 11 votes alongside Tom Dickson (Port Macquarie), Jake Hare (Nambucca Valley) and Coffs Breakers captain Liam Beacom.

Twelve months ago Gina Cardillo had never pulled on a football boot. Now the super fit midfielder is the cream of the women’s crop after winning the League’s Best & Fairest award.

Cardillo’s ability to get from contest to contest and extract possessions in busy traffic clearly caught the umpire’s eye and her superb debut season playing AFL was rewarded with the prestigious prize.

The victory was set-up when Cardillo polled eight votes in rounds 8, 9 and 10 to build a seven-vote lead over last year’s winner, Cassidy Ronalds from the Coffs Breakers.

In the closing stages of the count, Cardillo’s votes dried up as those behind her started polling votes that almost saw the gap closed.

Cardillo finished the count with 17 votes from her 10 matches. In the Breakers’ last three matches, Ronalds polled six votes to finish runner-up on 15 votes while her teammate Bella Crawley polled eight votes in those last three matches to race home to finish in a tie for third position on 14 votes with Amy Keen from the Lismore Swans.

Sawtell/Toormina stalwart Daniel Pritchard was the runaway winner in the reserves while Michael Luxton from Grafton was adjudged the best player in the under-17s.