WITH the AFL Women’s season coming to a close, clubs are starting to award their club champions, recognising the stars of the season.

In this new series from Rookie Me Central, we take a look at the seasons of each best and fairest winner and what led them to have such stellar seasons. 

In the next edition of our series, we had across to Punt Road and reflect on the season that was for the Tigers’ Best and Fairest winner Monique Conti.

Winning individual accolades is nothing new for Conti, who has now won seven club champion awards. That tally includes six straight at Richmond after winning one at the Western Bulldogs in 2019.

In 2024 she won the award by a single vote from fellow midfielder Eilish Sheerin, with Kate Dempsey and Ellie McKenzie level in third, and Bec Miller finishing in fifth.

It has been another big year for the midfield star, who continues to be one of the AFLW’s premier midfielders.

In 2024 Conti had a team high average of 27.8 disposals and five clearances per game. Her season culminated in making the All Australian Squad for the eighth season in a row, and finish equal fourth in the league best and fairest award.

Conti is the absolute core to Richmond’s midfield strategy, with her ability to win it in the inside and work the ball out to the outside top notch.

The problem is, she is often left to do too much of the work by herself, and does not have the support to really lift Richmond up to be one of the true contenders of the competition.

Grace Egan had been her sidekick for some time along with McKenzie when she was fit and firing, but they just did not perform at the same production level as Conti.

Sheerin was also moved into the midfield midway through the season which did help, but the Tigers need a little more depth and consistency to properly assist Conti, and take the next step at Punt Road.