Sam Collins has claimed his maiden Club Champion award after a stellar season in defence for the Gold Coast SUNS.
The key defender finished on 339 votes, four votes clear of Touk Miller in second place on 335 and 12 votes ahead of Jarrod Witts who claimed third with 227.
Collins seized the lead in Round 9 after polling 37 votes for his role in the match against GWS where he had five intercept marks and seven tackles.
From there he held on with another couple of strong performances in Rounds 10 and 14.
Collins has had an outstanding second season at the SUNS.
He played all 17 games and finished the year ranked second in the league for intercept possessions, averaging 7.1 per game.
The 26-year-old also finished in the top five for intercept marks in 2020, totalling 46 for the year.
Collins has been tasked with playing on the best key forwards in the AFL this year and has rarely been beaten in his contests.
He was also nominated by the playing group for the AFL Players’ Association MVP Award and the Most Courageous Award.
The honour of being Club Champion caps off an impressive year for Collins who was also voted into the leadership group for the first time in 2020.
Voting Process: Gold Coast's five-man match committee award votes to an unlimited number of players per match. The voting process allows each player to receive a maximum of ten votes from each individual member of the match committee, meaning the maximum number of votes a player can receive for any match is 50.
2020 Club Champion Award Winners:
Club Champion: Sam Collins
Club Champion Runner-Up: Touk Miller
Club Champion Third Place: Jarrod Witts
Players’ Player: Touk Miller & David Swallow
Hostplus Most Professional: Touk Miller
Elastoplast Emerging Player: Noah Anderson
