STAWELL - Nick Thomas was rewarded for a stellar 2012 season by taking out Stawell Warriors senior best and fairest award.
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Thomas polled 61 votes to win the best and fairest, finishing nine clear of 2011 winner Justin Eales.
Ruckman Shane Field, who finished fourth in the Wimmera Football League vote count, rounded out the top three with 47 votes.
Stawell's assistant coach for 2012, Thomas was named among Warriors best consistently throughout the year after being moved into the midfield from centre half back where he flourished.
"This year was a good year with 'Bachy' (coach Andrew Bach)," Thomas told The Stawell-Times News recently.
"He taught me so much throughout the year and allowed me to focus more on my game and play good footy. I learnt a bit just with different drills, different positions, strategies and tactics. It was a good learning curve."
Thomas said that it helped that Bach had been a similar a player.
"I'd go back to him and could relate to me (as a player). He'd say 'you can't zone off' at certain times and I could relate to what he was talking about."
Thomas is now taking the next step in his coaching career after recently being named as the new leader of Great Western.
In other senior results, most consistent went to Shane Field, Scott Nicholson took out leading goalkicker with 30 goals for the season and midfielder Cam Kimber was named as Stawell's most improved player.
Coaches awards went to defenders Drew Silk and Jamie Bach, while Tom Eckel took home best under 21 player honours.
Meanwhile, Stawell reserves best and fairest award went to Dan Thomas with 76 votes.
Thomas finished 10 ahead of Shaun Ellis while James Devery came in third with 44 votes.
Most consistent went to Matt Dwyer and leading goalkicker was Joel Freeland with 28 goals.
Brodie Paul took home reserves most improved honours and the coaches award was received by Josh Limbourne.
Marc Brilliant was presented with the game ball from his 200th match for Stawell.
Football leaderboard -
Seniors: (top 5) N Thomas 61 votes, J Eales 52, S Field 47, C Kimber 27, T Eckel 22.
Reserves: (top 5) D Thomas 76 votes, Shaun Ellis 66, J Devery 44, T Matthews 43, M Dwyer 38.