DANIEL Mendes wasted no time making an impact at the Ararat Rats, with the midfielder crowned the club’s senior best and fairest on Friday night.
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The 2014 gun recruit took home the Olver Memorial Medal after polling 73 votes for the season, well clear of runner-up Jack Ganley (39), with Brady Miller and Beau Cosson finishing equal third — both on 34.
Ararat coach David Hosking said he wasn’t surprised to see Mendes claim the club’s top prize, with the onballer being the Rats’ most consistent player throughout the year.
“He is just a hard worker. He is not particularly loud, but he definitely leads by example and just does all the things you want a leader to do,” Hosking said.
“He is very strong over the footy and does a fair bit of that grunt work that lightens the load on blokes like Alan (Batchelor) or Harry (Ganley) through the midfield.
“Instead of them getting crunched and buried into the ground all the time it was his stronger body.”
Mendes played in each of the Rats’ matches in 2014 (16 home and away and two finals), with the class player named in the team’s top six performers on all but five occasions.
He also finished the season with 30 goals, which included a bag of six in round 15.
Mendes, who joined the Rats over the summer from Eastern Football League club Vermont, said to claim the Olver Medal in his debut season with Ararat was a humbling experience.
“Coming to Ararat was a bit of an unknown because I had only ever played for the one club,” he said.
“I knew the boys were building on something from the previous year and after speaking to the coaches it sounded like they were heading in the right direction.
“I didn’t put any big expectations on the year, the focus was just to try and play some good footy and get the passion for the game back again which I had sort of lost.
“It is a different style of football, it definitely took me by surprise how good it was. The quality of opposition with some of the higher teams in the competition like Horsham, Warrack Eagles — it is a very good standard.”
Mendes said seeing the young side develop and playing under Hosking and Andrew Louder had been the highlight of his season.
“David and Andrew have been great for the team, they are really approachable guys and really good community people,” he said.
“They are passionate about their footy and they definitely brought the best out in us as a group. Unfortunate that we lose Scruff (Louder), he has been a great servant to the football club, but it is great David is sticking around and going again.”
Hosking said when Mendes signed with the club during the pre-season, he and Louder didn’t realise straight away the quality of player they had secured.
“It wasn’t immediately apparent I don’t think, but we started to get an inkling in the last practice match and then I reckon by quarter time of the round one game against Nhill I remember saying to Scruffy — we have a ripper here,” Hosking said.
“You could always tell he was a good player, but I think up until that point he had just been finding his way at the new club.”
Due to work commitments Mendes is uncertain about his playing future with the Rats in 2015.
Capping off his most consistent season with the Rats was runner-up Jack Ganley.
The talented tall showed his versatility during the year by spending time as both a key forward and an important runner on the wing.
“I thought he really deserved that (runner-up award),” Hosking said.
“I am a big wrap for Jack, always have been, I just reckon he brings absolute 100 per cent effort to everything he does. Whether it is a training session or a game, you can’t never ever doubt that he is trying to get the maximum out of himself.”
Hosking also praised the efforts of second runners-up, defender Brady Miller and forward Beau Cosson.
“Brady just got better and better as the year went on,” he said.
“He grew with confidence and you could see that when he was getting chirpy with opponents and backing himself in. He is just really comfortable in his role now, which is great.
“I don’t think we saw the absolute best of Beau.
“We did up until the VicCountry game where he clearly hurt his shoulder and his form dropped away a bit after that. If he doesn’t get injured again next year I think we’ll see an even better season from him.”
For full award winners from the Ararat Football-Netball Club presentation evening see Friday’s edition of The Ararat Advertiser.
Senior best and fairest
Daniel Mendes 73; Jack Ganley 39; Brady Miller 34; Beau Cosson 34; Aaron Searle 26; Jake Williamson 24; Jake Robinson 18; Harry Ganley 17; Alan Batchelor 17; Liam Cavanagh 12; Peter Thompson 9; Matt North 7; Brendon Lovell 5; Zac Louder 4; Will Bell 2; Tyler Cronin 2; Jacob Bates 1.