THE Noosa Tigers can stand proud this week after three of their own took out top awards at the AFL Queensland awards ceremony held in Brisbane on Monday night.
Adding to an already impressive year for the reserves team as they head into the grand finals this weekend, player Nathan Winter won the QFA (north) Reserves best-and-fairest award with 22 votes.
Nathan said it was great to win the award but he’s really looking forward to this weekend’s game.
“I’m feeling excited. Opportunities like this don’t come along often,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to getting down there and getting the job done.”
For the seniors, player Nick Hill took out fifth place for the QFA (north) Seniors best-and-fairest award.
The major win of the night went to dedicated clubman and supporter of the Noosa Tigers, Rob Purves, who walked away with the prestigious AFLQ Volunteer of the Year award.
“It’s great to win the award,” he said. “But you don’t do it for the award, you do it for the love.”
Rob was nominated for the award for carrying out multiple roles within the club including football manager, senior assistant coach, junior coaching co-ordinator, special needs coach and Auskick co-ordinator, for which Rob helped grow the participant numbers from 15 to 65.
Rob was also recognised for his innovative programs and support deals throughout the season including reaching out to a struggling club nearby to organise a player interchange between the two clubs to ensure the club still fielded a senior team and the competition had four competing clubs.
Rob said the highlight for this year was teaming up with local charity Sunshine Butterflies to develop and co-ordinate a program that allowed children and adults with high-level intellectual disabilities to play AFL.
The program ran for eight weeks and was modelled on the Auskick program, proving a great success for all who took part with the program, culminating in a half-time match during the seniors’ round 18 game.
Rob has won a trip of a lifetime as a thank you for his hard work and effort throughout the year.
Rob will fly to Melbourne for the 2015 Toyota AFL Grand Final where he will not only watch the game but will take part in the grand final parade and attend a volunteer thank you function at Government House.
