Lisa De Vanna and Mile Jedinak claim top gongs at Australian Football Awards
Mile Jedinak and Lisa De Vanna have claimed the Male and Female Footballer of the Year titles at the fifth annual Australian Football Awards which were held at a gala event at the Sydney Convention Centre tonight.
The Australian Football Awards brings together all levels of the sport from the grass roots football community through to the ranks of the Socceroos and Westfield Matildas, providing a unique opportunity to recognise and reward outstanding achievements.
In the other professional category awards the Female U20 Footballer of the Year went to Westfield Matilda Stephanie Catley for the second year in a row and Newcastle Jets midfielder Josh Brillante took out Male U20 Footballer of the Year.
In the non-professional category teams, volunteers, coaches and referees from around the nation were also recognised.
The male coach of the year award went to Alain Pace of South Australia and the female coach of the year went to Michelle Aurousseau from Canberra.
The referee of the year went to Katherine Jacewicz from Victoria and the volunteer of the year award was presented to the husband and wife team of Alex & Alexandra Threadgate Maitland in Northern NSW for their work with children with additional needs
Two new awards were also presented with Tamara Felsch from Terrigal, NSW receiving the ME Bank Green Card for Fairer Play Award and the Australian Somali Football Association receiving the Asian Cup 2015 Community Project of the Year Award.
James Turner from NSW was named the Pararoos Footballer of the Year.
2013 Australian Football Award Winners
PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
Footballer of the Year (male): Mile Jedinak, Crystal Palace
Footballer of the Year (female): Lisa De Vanna, Melbourne Victory
U20 Footballer of the Year (male): Josh Brillante, Newcastle Jets
U20 Footballer of the Year (female): Stephanie Catley, Melbourne Victory
NON-PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
Volunteers of the Year: Alex & Alexandra Threadgate – Northern NSW Football
Referee of the Year: Katherine Jacewicz –Victoria
Team of the Year: Senior Men’s Team – FNQ FC Heat – Queensland
Coach of the Year (male): Alan Paice, Sturt Lions FC – South Australia
Coach of the Year (female): Michelle Aurousseau, – ACT
The Asian Cup 2015 Community Project of the Year Award: Australian Somali Football Championships Unite FC
The ME Bank Green Card for Fairer Play Award: Tamar Felsch – Terrigal United
Pararoos Footballer of the Year: James Turner – NSW
PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
Footballer of the Year (male): Mile Jedinak, Crystal Palace
Mile Jedinak has definitely had a year to remember. After captaining his club Crystal Palace to promotion to the English Premier League in what is said to be one of the biggest matches in World Football when his team defeated Watford 1-0. Couple that with the fact that Jedinak was instrumental in helping the Socceroos qualify for their third successive appearance at the FIFA World Cup, could things get any better for the former Sydney United part-time footballer that now plays on the biggest of world stages.
Footballer of the Year (female): Lisa De Vanna, Melbourne Victory
Lisa De Vanna is an elder of the Westfield Matildas tribe with 75 appearances to her name since debuting in 2004. A striker with a keen eye for goal, De Vanna has been part of some the biggest moments in Australian Women’s football including two FIFA Women’s World Cups, an Olympic Games and of course the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Championship in 2010. To sum up the success of her past year, yesterday De Vanna was nominated for the prestigious FIFA Puskas Award for goal of the year alongside the likes of Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Antonio Di Natale after netting a spectacular bicycle kick in June while playing for Sky Blue FC in this year’s inaugural season of the US-based National Women’s Soccer League.
U20 Footballer of the Year (male): Josh Brillante, Newcastle Jets
In a word the last 12 months for Josh Brillante have been BRILLIANT. From an outstanding season with the Newcastle Jets in the Hyundai A-League to headline grabbing performances at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey and to put the icing on the cake a Socceroos debut against China at the EAFF East Asian Cup, this boy from Bundaberg has a bright future ahead of him.
U20 Footballer of the Year (female): Stephanie Catley, Melbourne Victory
This is the second year in a row that Stephanie has claimed this award. This time Catley was being touted as a next big thing and this year she underlined that claim. She helped her club to their inaugural first Westfield W-League Grand Final appearance and although defeated by Sydney FC was named the Westfield W-League’s Young Player of the Year. This season, showing maturity beyond her years, Catley has been named captain of the Melbourne Victory’s Women’s captain for the 20-13/14 season.
NON-PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
Team of the Year: Senior Men’s Team – FNQ FC Heat – Queensland
In the newly formed club’s inaugural season of the Football Queensland’s National Premier League competition, it wasn’t just the Senior Men’s teams on field exploits that got them this award, but their outstanding off-field exploits and Community Engagement Initiatives. The Heat’s community engagement included various fundraisers and support for Guide Dogs Queensland, FNQ Cerebral Palsy Support Group and the Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Appeal as well as local community football clinics.
Male Coach of the Year – Alan Paice, Sturt Lions FC – South Australia
Alan has served the club as a coach for many years at all levels. He is the Senior coach (completing his B license), he coaches the Junior Academy and is one of the u10 coaches and helps with u6 where his son plays. He Coaches all Small Sided Football players who participate in our Summer training on Sunday mornings during the off season. There isn’t a night that or day of the week that he isn’t involved in club coaching commitments during the winter season.
Female Coach of the Year – Michelle Aurousseau, – ACT
Michelle is one of Canberra highest qualified female coaches, with her B licence currently pending final assessment. Michelle has been involved with coaching at both club level and state representative level, for both boys and girls. Michelle was the U16 Premier League coach for the Canberra City Football Club in 2012, and in 2013 was involved in state squads through coaching the U11 Girls SAP Squad, and stepping in as the assistant coach for the U13 girls ACT State Squad.
Referee of the Year – Katherine Jacewicz –Victoria
Kate provides outstanding leadership and is a role model for young referees and in particular, female match officials who have benefited from working with her. Kate has taken her skills across boundaries of race, gender, age, and social standing without variation on consistent, quality performance.
Volunteers of the Year: Alex & Alexandra Threadgate – Northern NSW Football
Alex Threadgate and Alexandra Malam are Hunter Valley Football’s Zone Volunteer of the Year. This husband and wife team established a club in Maitland that caters for players of all ages with a disability or special needs. Alex & Alex decided on this after both working with children as a Teachers Aid and Childcare Worker respectively. They identified a lack of recreational activities for additional needs children and decided that this could be best resolved through football so they established a new club known as “Maitland Football for All”.
This club allowed children with additional needs to participate in mainstream football without having the pressure of winning or losing, but having fun, making friends and taking away some social skills. While the focus of the initiative is on having fun and participation, players benefited from physical, emotional and social skills that helped to build confidence and self-esteem that can last a lifetime. The establishment of this club is a first for the Hunter Valley and in fact Northern NSW Football. Teams took part in existing Hunter Valley Football competitions and were be placed in age divisions where opposing teams normally had a bye.
A mother of two boys registered with the club said “I cried when I first read about it. It gave the boys something to look forward to each week and it’s something that we were all very excited about because I don’t know if they would have been able to cope at another soccer club. It opened up doors for me too because sometimes you can feel very isolated.”
All of the above was achieved by Alex and Alex after only just having their first child and having no direct family or association with anyone with additional needs.
These two individuals are an outstanding nomination and are role models to not only the Maitland Community but to the whole Football Family.
The ME Bank Green Card for Fairer Play Award: Tamar Felsch – Terrigal United
Tamara Tamar is a friendly player who is not only respected by her team mates but also by players of other teams.
Tamar never misses games or training even if she is sick and turns up 45 mins before games start for warm up and trains an extra 1 1/2 hours with the coach on the nights they train even if it is pouring.
Tamar likes to mentor other players to help them improve their skills.
In Year 6, Tamar was the victim of bullying by a particular student at school. whenever Tamar’s team won games against her team. It was the bully’s first year playing football but Tamar’s sixth year. In spite of the ongoing bullying because, Tamar wanted to help the bully with her lack of football skills. Tamar invited her home for the night so she could coach her in ball skills, show her how to shoot goals and juggling. Because of Tamar’s love for football, the two became the best friends and still are to this day.
Tamar now coaches kids from other teams to help them improve also.
The Asian Cup 2015 Community Project of the Year Award: Australian Somali Football Association
The Australian Somali Football Association (ASFA) run the Australian Somali Football Championships every year and the most recent edition (in Dec 2012) had 17 teams from across Australia playing over a week. These teams featured players from all Horn of Africa countries, the best of which were selected to be part of Unite FC, which went to Brazil this year for a youth tournament.
The ASFA is run by Ahmed Dini who won Victoria’s Local Hero award in 2012. Ahmed delivers a school program in partnership with FFV’s United Through Football in four council areas with high number of African students that is about football but uses it to deliver mentoring and leadership programs
Pararoos Footballer of the Year: James Turner – NSW
James Turner is a product of Northern NSW Football and has represent the NSW Paralympic 7-A-Side Football Team since 2009. James has the following achievements to his name.
2009 – A member of the NSW Youth team that won gold at the Australian Paralympic Youth Games (Melbourne)
2010 – A member of the NSW team that won the 2010 National Paralympic 7-A-Side Football Championships (Melbourne)
2011 – A member of the NSW team that won the 2011 National Paralympic 7-A-Side Football Championships (Adelaide)
2012 – A member of the NSW team that won the 2012 National Paralympic 7-A-Side Football Championships (Rockhampton)
2013 – A member of the NSW team that won the 2013 National Paralympic 7-A-Side Football Championships (Coffs Harbour)
At the 2013 National Paralympic 7-A-Side Football Championships James was named Player of the Tournament.
In 2012 James made his debut for Australia when the PARAROOS played the current World No 3 team Iran at the AFC Dream Asia Cerebral Palsy Tournament – Abu Dhabi – United Arab Emirates.
James has now played for Australia 16 times.
At the CPISRA Intercontinental Championships in Spain this year after the Australia vs USA match head coach Paul Brown stated “"On a positive note youngster James Turner has cemented himself into the starting line-up after his performance today".
James has represented Australia at the following tournaments:
2012 AFC Dream Asia Cerebral Palsy Tournament Abu Dhabi, UAE
2012 Ukraine Invitational Tournament Yevpatoriya City, Ukraine
2013 Canadian Invitational Tournament Montreal, Canada
2013 CPISRA Intercontinental Championships Sant Cugat, Spai
