The 2014 Gold Coast SUNS Fans Player of the Year, presented by Alto Cucina & Bar, has been won by captain Gary Ablett in convincing fashion.
Ablett raced out of the blocks to build a 100-vote lead over his nearest rival just eight games into the season. Not surprisingly, the Little Master topped the votes in seven of those eight games with the round 2 match against Fremantle the only time he missed out on polling maximum votes.
When the count reached round 15, the skipper had 321 votes to his name, extending his lead to a whopping 144 votes over eventual Club Champion David Swallow.
Despite ‘Gaz’ suffering a season-ending injury in round 16 against Collingwood, his nearest challengers Swallow (249 votes) and Dion Prestia (207 votes) couldn’t close the gap with Ablett finishing well ahead of them on 325 votes to take out the award voted by the fans.
Top Three – 2014 Fans Player of the Year
1. Gary Ablett – 325 votes
2. David Swallow – 249 votes
3. Dion Prestia – 207 votes
Top Three – Round-by-Round
Round 1: Ablett 31, Swallow 21, Prestia 16
Round 2: Swallow 27, May 12, Rischitelli 10
Round 3: Ablett 36, Swallow 17, May 9
Round 4: Ablett 26, Swallow 24, May 11
Round 5: Ablett 30, Shaw 13, Rischitelli 13
Round 6: Ablett 26, Lynch 25, Shaw 9
Round 7: Ablett 29, Lynch 14, Bennell 10
Round 9: Ablett 38, O’Meara 11, Matera 10
Round 10: Prestia 22, Shaw 19, Lynch 12
Round 11: Swallow 34, Prestia 19, Dixon 10
Round 12: May 30, Ablett 23, Thompson 12
Round 13: Prestia 32, Ablett 15, Shaw 10
Round 14: Bennell 39, Ablett 19, Prestia 8
Round 15: Ablett 38, Swallow 15, O’Meara 14
Round 16: Swallow 33, Day 15, O’Meara 14
Round 17: O’Meara 31, Prestia 11, Shaw 11
Round 18: Stanley 27, Shaw 18, Prestia 11
Round 19: Prestia 20, Lynch 16, May 14
Round 20: O’Meara 18, Shaw 14, Lynch 14
Round 21: McKenzie 26, Bennell 12, Prestia 8
Round 22: Lynch 25, Prestia 21, Swallow 18
Round 23: Martin 30, Rischitelli 21, Shaw 17
How the voting works
There are a maximum of 100 points per game that can be awarded to the entire team. Each player is then given a percentage of the total votes received to go towards their season tally (eg. if 1,200 votes were placed in Round 1 and Gary Ablett receives 600 then that is the equivalent of 50% of all votes for that round and he would receive 50 points towards his season tally. If the second best player received 200 votes from 1,200 then that is the equivalent of 16.7% and he will get 17 votes towards the season tally).
