The Northern Blues’ year officially finished up last week with the Laurie Hill Trophy night: the celebration of the team’s best and fairest for season 2015. It was a difficult year for Northern, who endured a winless final two months after being decimated by injury to ultimately finish in 14th place with four wins.

Best and fairest

Carlton rookie Brad Walsh was officially crowned the club’s best and fairest player this season, taking home the Laurie Hill Trophy as the runaway winner. As the side’s most consistent by a long way, Walsh romped to victory and was never headed after round 13.

The ball magnet didn’t drop below 18 disposals in any VFL game during the season, and was a constant performer for the Blues in a side which had a constant turnover through injuries at both Carlton and Northern Blues level. His Laurie Hill Trophy victory made him the youngest winner in over a decade, as well as being the inaugural first-year winner since Northern’s alignment with Carlton.


Carlton rookie Brad Walsh became the youngest player to win the Northern Blues' best and fairest in the past decade. (Photo: Tim Murdoch)

Bolt from the blue

After being given a taste of AFL level at the end of 2014, Nick Graham found himself back at the Northern Blues to start this year. However, his early season VFL form promptly saw him bang the selection door down, playing eight consecutive games for Carlton prior to injury cruelly bringing his season to a halt.

Graham’s VFL form from just five games was emphatic enough to see him place second in the Northern Blues’ best and fairest, with two of them warranting perfect scores. In a low-scoring Liston Trophy count for Northern, Graham was also the club’s top vote-getter. A constant face at Northern in his first two and a half seasons, Graham’s development should see him pushing for a constant best 22 spot in 2016.

New AFL recruits

Carlton’s four national draft choices all spent a fair portion of their maiden season tuning their game with the Northern Blues, with two of them being rewarded with AFL debuts. Blaine Boekhorst was extremely impressive in his final month of VFL football, while Clem Smith returned to VFL level after a taste of AFL to kick three goals in an accomplished performance against Box Hill.

Dillon Viojo-Rainbow and Jayden Foster spent their year coming to terms with the VFL competition, before the latter’s year was ended early through injury. Viojo-Rainbow was trialled across a number of positions, showing his potential in spurts but fading out of games.

Of the other rookies and recruits from other clubs, Tom Fields formed a strong partnership with Kieran McGuinness particularly early in the year, while Mark Whiley put together a strong campaign to ultimately finish equal-third in the best and fairest. Kristian Jaksch found himself swung to both ends of the ground come the end of the season, and he too was eventually rewarded with a stint at AFL level.

Familiar faces

The Blues’ top-end VFL talent combined with Carlton’s youth showed they could mix it with the best from the get-go, agonisingly falling by one point to Williamstown in Round 1. Spearheaded by captain Brent Bransgrove, who arguably enjoyed a career-best year before injury brought him down, the Blues had realistic dreams of featuring in September football at the midway point of the season.

Ever-present contributors included 2014 Laurie Hill Trophy winner Tom Wilson and veteran recruit Kieran McGuinness, who provided a solid backbone for an otherwise youthful Blues outfit. Recruits including Glenn Strachan, Tyrone Armitage and Alex Aurrichio were also consistent contributors in the VFL team, but as injuries ripped through the Blues and the losses came, a lack of experience and depth was found out.

Best performance

While the Blues may have broke records with their 157-point trouncing of Frankston at Etihad Stadium in Round 11, the most satisfying victory came a week prior against Werribee. At the time top-four hopefuls, the Tigers got away to an early ascendancy before a blistering display from the Blues in the third term blew Werribee out of the water.

Off the back of some Matthew Watson brilliance up forward (six goals), the Blues’ ruthless efficiency saw them pile on eight goals to two, kicking out to what proved to be a match-winning lead. Werribee hit back hard in the final term, but the Blues ultimately held on in their most complete performance of the season against a highly-fancied opponent. Blaine Boekhorst was similarly central to the Blues’ fightback, while the maiden 2015 victory against Sandringham in Round 3 was also a noteworthy performance given the opponent on offer.

Tale of the tape

Ultimately, the victories came few and far between for the Northern Blues in 2015, replicating Carlton’s form guide at AFL level.

Butchered by injury in the second half of the season, the Blues lacked both the experience and quality on the field, ultimately enjoying success last against Frankston in Round 11. With injuries to key Carlton personnel as well as captain Brent Bransgrove and vice-captain Kieran McGuinness, Northern often found itself fielding inexperienced sides with less than a combined 100 games of AFL experience.

The Blues will also be ruing missed opportunities earlier in the season: opposed to the heavy defeats they suffered late, the Blues arguably found themselves unlucky to be on the losing end at times. With victories over preliminary finalist Sandringham and top-eight side Werribee, the Blues showed there is undoubted quality there to compete with the best sides in the competition: however, inconsistency and injuries ultimately proved too big a challenge for Northern to deal with in 2015.