Bodhi Uwland has become the least experienced player in SUNS history to finish on the podium in the club championship.

And, in one of the great stories in SUNS history, he is the first player to do so in a season in which he was dropped from the side.

The 21-year-old defender charged from the depths of the leaderboard to finish second behind Sam Collins and ahead of Sam Flanders, Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson and Mac Andrew at the club’s end-of-season  celebration on Monday night.

In the round-by-round count, Uwland was 19^th after Round 8, having spent that weekend in the VFL. He had just seven votes and was 18 votes behind Rowell, the leader at the time.

From that point he out-voted the entire field, polling in 14 of the last 15 games.

Under a revised voting system whereby each player was rated 0-5 by the match committee in each AFL game, Uwland went 4-4-0-3-5-4-5-3-1-4-4-1-3-3-5.

He broke into the top 10 at Round 15, when he sat 7^th. He was 4^th at Rounds 19-20-21, dropped to 5^th at Round 22 and then leap-frogged Flanders, Andrew and Rowell in Round 23 to get to 2^nd. And there he stayed after a five-vote game to close the season against Richmond at the MCG.

It is a remarkable achievement for a born-and-bred Gold Coaster whose football journey began in the Burleigh Bombers Under 6’s. He joined the SUNS Academy at 11, attended All Saints Anglican College and switched to Broadbeach to play senior football before he was drafted as a rookie in November 2022.

In one of the great draft ‘steals’ of all-time, Uwland, a foundation member of the SUNS aged seven in 2011, was pick #37 in the rookie draft – the last of 76 first-time draftees in that period.

Astonishingly, he did not play a game at any level in his first season at the club in 2022 due to stress fractures in his back. He spent as much as 23 hours a day in a back brace and clocked more than 3000km on a stationary bike during his rehabilitation.

Yet three years on, albeit before other clubs conduct their 2024 best & fairest count, there is only one other player from the Class of 2021 who has finished top three  – Nick Daicos was equal 2^nd at Collingwood last year.

That Uwland would poll 56 votes to finish behind Collins (68) and ahead of Flanders (55), Rowell (54), Anderson (50) and Andrew (49) would have been unthinkable given that in Round 9, when the SUNS played Brisbane at the Gabba, he was in the VFL.

A young man who lives by the highest of standards, he took his demotion on the chin and quickly returned to the high standards expected of him internally.

It wasn’t the first time he showed great character and resolve after a down moment - he’d done precisely the same thing after he was taken to the cleaners by Brisbane’s Charlie Cameron early in a practice match in February.

He finished the season ranked fifth in the club for defensive half pressure acts, behind the midfield quartet of Rowell, Anderson, Flanders and Miller, and won or halved 81.0% of his one-on-one contests, behind only Collins (84.2%) and Ballard (81.8%).

Six other SUNS have finished top three in the B&F before reaching 50 AFL games.

Harley Bennell was 2^nd in 2012 after 36 games and Collins won the B&F in 2020 after 40 career games – 14 for Fremantle and 26 for the SUNS.

Danny Stanley was 3^rd in 2012 after 40 career games (35 for the SUNS), Kade Kolodjashnij was 2^nd in 2015 after 40 games, and Jaeger O’Meara and Jack Martin were 3^rd in 2013 and 2016 respectively after 44 games.         

Uwland, aged 21 years and 30 days in the last game of the home-and-away season, is also the fifth-youngest player to finish top three in the SUNS B&F.

Using the end of the home-and-season as the benchmark date, Bennell (19/335) was youngest from Kolodjashnij (20/27), O’Meara (20/189) and Dion Prestia, who was a 51-gamer aged 20 years 324 days when he finished 2^nd in 2013.

Ben Long, who finished 8^th this year with 39 votes behind Will Powell (43) and ahead of co-captains Miller (36) and Witts (35), was the other player who charged up the leaderboard in the second half of the season.

Having played only one of the first seven games and gone without a vote against the Bulldogs in Ballarat in Round 2, he had 29 players ahead of him on the leaderboard. But from Round 8 he polled in 14 of the last 16 games, going 1-3-5-3-5-1-1-4-1-1-0-1-5-4-0-4.

In total the match committee awarded 57 five-vote games, 48 four-vote games and 65 three-votes games, with the two highest totals coming in the two games in Darwin – 83 votes against Geelong in Round 10 after 64 votes against North Melbourne in Round 9.

Among players who played more than eight games, Uwland had the highest percentage of 3-4-5 votes at 61.9% (3-5-5), from Flanders (59.1%) Collins (56.5%) and Andrew, Powell and Witts (50%).

Rowell (9) had most five-vote games from Collins (7), Anderson (6), Flanders (5), Andrew (5), Uwland (3), Powell (3), Long (3), Witts (3) and Sam Closehy (3) and Miller (2).

Collins polled in most games – 21 of 23 – from Uwland (18), Flanders (17), Andrew and Nick Holman (16), Rowell (15), Anderson, Long, Powell and Ballard (14).

The Round 3 home win over late-season glamor side Hawthorn was next best with 63 votes, ahead of the Opening Round home win over Richmond (62 votes) and the Round 16 win over Collingwood (59 votes).

The lowest team vote was eight votes against Sydney at the SCG in Round 6 and Melbourne at People First Stadium in Round 23.

The highest number of players polling in a game was 22. It happened three times  against Hawthorn in Round 5, Geelong in Round 10 and Collingwood in Round 16. The lowest was three players in the 29-point loss to Carlton at Marvel Stadium in Round 11, when the only votes went to Andrew (5), Long (3) and Collins (2).

Collins polled most votes in the SUNS’ 11 wins, picking up 47 from Anderson (45), Rowell (43), Flanders (38), Miller (34) and Uwland (31), while Andrew (27) had most votes in losses from Uwland (25), Collins (21), Powell (19) and Flanders (17).

Anderson (33) polled most votes in games at PFS from Collins (31), Rowell (26), Flanders (23), Miller (23), Uwland (22), Witts (22) and Powell (21), while Miller (10 topped the Darwin vote from Collins (9), Anderson (8), Flanders (8), Uwland (8), Ben King (8), Long (8) and Alex Sexton (8).

In ‘away’ games (excluding Darwin) it was Andrew (29), Collins (28), Uwland (26), Flanders (24), Powell (22), Rowell (21) and Long (20).

On a votes per game basis, Collins (2.96) ranked best from five-gamer Sam Day (2.80), Uwland (2.67y), Flanders (2.50), Andrew (2.45), Powell (2.39), Rowell (2.35), Long (2.29), Witts (2.19), Anderson (2.17), Ned Moyle (2.13) and Miller (2.0).

Day polled five votes in what turned out to be his last game for the club against North at Marvel, when he had a career-high six contested marks and a career-high five marks inside 50.

Closehy, such a star in his first year, finished 11^th overall with 32 votes, three votes outside the top 10. He was as high as 7^th at Round 9 despite not making his debut until Round 4, having begun his career with back-to-back ‘fives’ against GWS in Mt.Barker and Hawthorn at PFS.

Will Graham and Jake Rogers each polled a ‘five’ in their second game – Graham against Hawthorn in Round 5, and Rogers against West Coast in Round 7.

Miller had consecutive ‘fives’ in Darwin and was 3^rd in the count at Round 10 but played only eight games thereafter, while Witts, who picked up a ‘five’ against North in Darwin before sitting out the next week against Geelong, was 3^rd at Round 9 but played only eight of the last 14 games.

Rowell had a roller-coaster season – 37 votes in the first 12 games, two votes in the next seven, and 15 votes (three fives) in the last four games.

But with nine ‘fives’ Rowell still finished most often among the leading SUNS vote-getters. Collins had seven ‘fives’ and once topped the votes with a ‘four’, Anderson had six ‘fives’ and Uwland ‘three’ fives and three other games when he topped the vote.

Andrew, Flanders and Powell were on the top line of voting five times, and Holman topped the vote in Round 6 against Sydney – with two votes.