World Footy News

On Saturday, September 22nd the AFL Canada held its 2007 Ontario Australian Football League annual Best & Fairest Awards presentation at the 130 Event Center in Toronto, Ontario. The League also announced its All-star team, and it's always interesting to see the mix between expatriate Australians and Canadian players. The full line-up is shown below.

Over 150 players and coaches attended the gala event and witnessed one of the closet vote counts in OAFL history. At the conclusion of the count, it was Broadview Hawk’s rover John McGrath who finished on top with 26 votes closely followed by Lachlan McDonald of the Toronto Eagles with 25 votes. Both players have had fantastic seasons and both polled well in each of the 15 rounds.

McGrath, who has been with the Broadview Hawk’s for two seasons, was the first Hawk to win the award since its inception. When asked how he felt about the receiving the prestigious award, McGrath stated "I'm so honoured to have received this award and it’s a great personal achievement, but I feel it was a team effort. If it wasn't for my teammates I wouldn't have been able to perform as well as I have this season.” McGrath also stated “Even though this is a great achievement my real goal this year is to get the ultimate prize, an OAFL premiership.”

Other Awards presented on the night were:

OAFL Coach of the year
Mark Block

OAFL Leading Goal Kicker
Dan Walker

OAFL Umpire of the Year
Greg Everett

The OAFL also announced their 2007 All-star team. With so many exceptional players this year the honour to be selected on the team has never been so rewarding. As in past years, the squad is listed in position and has a good spread of Aussies and Canadians - see graphic.