The final rounds of the AFLCA Champion Player of the Year are withheld to create more drama around the awarding of the winner, but now the winner has been named, the votes have been released.
While the Round 22 clash with Sydney resulted in a loss for North Melbourne, Aaron Hall and Jy Simpkin were recognised for their individual performances by David Noble and John Longmire.
Hall received four votes for his game-high 30 disposal performance, with the defender impacting the game in the fashion that’s come to be expected of him in 2021.
Along with those 30 touches, Hall took 10 marks, 5 intercepts and a game-high 771 metres gained - almost 300 metres more than Tom Hickey in second.
Jy Simpkin finished with one vote, thanks to his gritty 22 disposal performance from midfield.
Finishing with 10 contested possessions and 4 clearances at 81.8 per cent efficiency, Simpkin was a constant and effective threat through the midfield for the entirety of the contest.
No North players received votes in the Round 23 defeat to Adelaide.
North Melbourne v Sydney
8 Will Hayward (SYD)
8 Luke Parker (SYD)
5 Harry Cunningham (SYD)
4 Aaron Hall (NMFC)
3 Tom Hickey (SYD)
1 Jy Simpkin (NMFC)
1 Nick Blakey (SYD)
Ben Cunnington ends the season having accumulated the most coaches votes of all North players, finishing the season with 46 votes.
A number of strong, consistent performances led to him topping the leaderboard, with his eight vote performance in Round 7, nine vote performance in Round 9, and eight vote performance in Round 16 pushing him up the list.
Aaron Hall can lay a strong claim to being North’s most consistent performer in 2021, having polled coaches votes in nine of his 20 games played for the season.
Removing Round 2 where Hall was medical substitute, and Round 5 where he left the game early due to concussion, he holds the exceptional record of polling votes in over half of the games he played this season.
The two performances in which Kangaroos received a perfect 10 votes were:
Jaidyn Stephenson - Round 17 v West Coast: 38 disposals, 1 goal, 10 marks, 4 tackles, 3 clearances.
Nick Larkey - Round 19 v Carlton: 20 disposals, 8 marks, 7 goals.
Final North Melbourne leaderboard
46 Ben Cunnington
33 Jy Simpkin
31 Aaron Hall
19 Jaidyn Stephenson
18 Jack Ziebell
13 Todd Goldstein
13 Cameron Zurhaar
11 Nick Larkey
10 Tarryn Thomas
6 Luke Davies-Uniacke
5 Ben McKay
1 Bailey Scott
