NSW AFL stars nominated for top gongs

2012 was a huge year for AFL in NSW with the Sydney Swans clinching the AFL Premiership and the GWS GIANTS’ first year in the competition.

After a stellar season, AFL stars from the Swans and the GIANTS, and two AFL Sydney officials have been nominated for the NSW Sports Federation’s top honours.

The Federation received 128 nominations, ranging from Olympians to local community champions, for the 2012 NSW Sports Federation Awards, which celebrate outstanding achievements of NSW athletes, coaches, officials and organisations.

The Premiers top the list with the Sydney Swans picking up four nominations, including Athlete of the Year, Coach of the Year and Team and Organisation of the Year.

Swans 2012 Best and Fairest winner Josh Kennedy has capped off a magnificent season with a nomination for the Athlete of the Year award.

Coach John Longmire said of Kennedy’s Best and Fairest-winning season: “Every year we implore our players to improve and in the three seasons he has been at our club, Josh has just kept getting better and better.”

Longmire picked up a nomination himself, in the Coach of the Year category.

Also named the AFL Coaches Association’s Allen Jeans Senior Coach of the Year, Longmire guided to the Swans to the 2012 Premiership in just his second year as Head Coach.

Sydney Swans Chief Executive Andrew Ireland said Longmire had done a great job at the club since taking the reins at the end of the 2010 season.

“To take the Club to a Grand Final in just his second season is a great credit to John,” Ireland said after Longmire’s AFL Coaches Association Award win.

“Everyone who is part of our Club has the utmost respect for John, and this award shows his peers share that respect which is a tremendous accolade.”

The Sydney Swans have also been nominated for Team and Organisation of the Year.

The GIANTS have picked up an accolade too with impressive young star Jacob Townsend, from Leeton in Southern NSW, nominated for the Young Athlete of the Year award.

Townsend played 11 games in the GIANTS’ debut season and was also recognised with the Coaches Award at the GIANTS’ Club Champion night.

“Jacob is a young player that has come through the system right here in NSW. He never backs down from the contest and consistently demonstrates the tough brand of competitive football that we are establishing at this club,” coach Kevin Sheedy said at the GIANTS’ Club Champion night.

AFL Sydney’s Frank Kalayzich and Michael Saunders have also received nominations.

Kalayzich has been nominated for Masters Athlete of the Year after notching 450 Senior Premier Division Games as an umpire in the AFL Sydney Competition.

Kalayzich began umpiring in 1978 in the Manly-Warringah Junior Football competition and has umpired almost every year since.

Saunders, an AFL boundary umpire has been nominated for Official of the Year.

A project manager from Randwick, he has been umpiring in the AFL since 2009 and has officiated 80 games including the 2012 semi-final between the Adelaide Crows and the Fremantle Dockers.

The Melbourne-born 26-year-old started umpiring for the Victorian Amateur Football Association at just 18 before moving to Sydney and officiating in the Sydney AFL, NEAFL and now the AFL.

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph has also been nominated for the Sports Media Award for its AFL coverage.

The five finalists from each category will be announced early next week before the awards ceremony on December 1 at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth Hotel.