Richmond champion Dustin Martin has moved into second place in the AFL Coaches’ Association’s 2020 Gary Ayres Award following his superb performance in last Friday night’s preliminary final victory over Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.
Martin, a dual winner of the best finals player (2017 and 2019), received the maximum 10 votes from rival coaches Damien Hardwick (Richmond) and Ken Hinkley (Port Adelaide) after finishing the match with a team-high 21 disposals and two crucial goals in the low-scoring, tight, tough contest.
He now has 18 votes in this year’s finals series, which is one behind the leader, Geelong star Mitch Duncan.
Robust Richmond ruckman Toby Nankervis picked up six votes for his sterling effort on the night – 13 disposals, four marks, a game-high 10 tackles, six intercepts and 19 hit-outs.
Inspirational Tigers captain Trent Cotchin, in his 250th AFL game, polled three votes, as did Kane Lambert, whose two last-quarter goals were pivotal for the team.
Rounding out Richmond’s preliminary final vote-winners in the Ayres Award was electric small forward/midfielder Shai Bolton, with two votes.
Full voting details for the Richmond v Port Adelaide preliminary final are:
PORT ADELAIDE v RICHMOND
10 Dustin Martin (RICH)
6 Toby Nankervis (RICH)
4 Dan Houston (PORT)
3 Trent Cotchin (RICH)
3 Kane Lambert (RICH)
2 Tom Jonas (PORT)
2 Shai Bolton (RICH)
Gary Ayres Award leaderboard
19 Mitch Duncan (GEEL)
18 Dustin Martin (RICH)
10 Nic Naitanui (WCE)
10 Daniel Rich (BL)
9 Patrick Dangerfield (GEEL)
9 Paddy Ryder (STK)
9 Ollie Wines (PORT)
7 Caleb Daniel (WB)
7 Dougal Howard (STK)
7 Toby Nankervis (RICH)
* Players in bold can still win the Gary Ayres Award
