{"id":56691,"date":"2019-08-25T22:48:19","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T11:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=56691"},"modified":"2019-08-25T23:51:44","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T12:51:44","slug":"rocci-claims-morrish-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2019\/08\/25\/rocci-claims-morrish-medal\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocci claims Morrish Medal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WESTERN Jets captain <strong>Lucas Rocci<\/strong> made history, becoming the first ever Western Jets&#8217; Morrish Medallist after taking out the award in 2019 polling 17 votes. Rocci won the count by three votes from Sandringham Dragons&#8217; skipper <strong>Ryan Byrnes<\/strong>, with Calder Cannons&#8217; <strong>Ned Gentile<\/strong>, Greater Western Victoria (GWV) Rebels&#8217; <strong>Jay Rantall<\/strong> and Eastern Ranges&#8217; <strong>Mitch Mellis<\/strong> just behind on 13.<\/p>\n<p>Rocci lead throughout the count, holding a one-vote lead at the 10-round update over Gold Coast SUNS Academy member <strong>Hewago Paul Oea<\/strong> &#8211; who had only played five games but still polled 11 votes &#8211; and Byrnes. He maintained the lead by Round 14, sitting on 17 votes, four clear of Byrnes, with Murray Bushrangers&#8217; <strong>Jye Chalcraft<\/strong> and Mellis&#8217; seven votes behind on 10. While Rocci did not poll a vote in the final three rounds, he lead by enough to consolidate the win.<\/p>\n<p>In season 2019, Rocci averaged 18.9 disposals, 4.3 marks, 3.8 tackles and 5.1 rebounds per game, stepping up as a crucial player in Western&#8217;s defensive back six. His averages across the board lifted, and while he missed out on Vic Metro selection in 2019, proved that his form never wavered by earning the NAB League Boys&#8217; highest honour.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Club-by-club voting top vote-getters:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bendigo Pioneers = Thomson Dow 6<br \/>\nBrisbane Lions = Bruce Reville 5<br \/>\nCalder Cannons = Ned Gentile 13<br \/>\nDandenong Stingrays = Hayden Young 7<br \/>\nEastern Ranges = Mitch Mellis 13<br \/>\nGeelong Falcons = Keidan Rayner 6<br \/>\nGold Coast SUNS = Hewago Paul Oea 11<br \/>\nGWS GIANTS = Tom Green 7<br \/>\nGippsland Power = Riley Baldi = 9<br \/>\nGWV Rebels = Jay Rantall = 13<br \/>\nMurray Bushrangers = Jye Chalcraft 10<br \/>\nNorthern Knights = Josh D&#8217;Intinosante 9<br \/>\nNorthern Territory &#8211; Stephen Cumming 3<br \/>\nOakleigh Chargers = Matt Rowell 12<br \/>\nSandringham Dragons = Ryan Byrnes 14<br \/>\nSydney Swans = Kyle Martin 6<br \/>\nTasmania Devils = Oliver Davis 8<br \/>\nWestern Jets = Lucas Rocci 17<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WESTERN Jets captain Lucas Rocci made history, becoming the first ever Western Jets&#8217; Morrish Medallist after taking out the award in 2019 polling 17 votes. Rocci won the count by three votes from Sandringham Dragons&#8217; skipper Ryan Byrnes, with Calder Cannons&#8217; Ned Gentile, Greater Western Victoria (GWV) Rebels&#8217; Jay Rantall and Eastern Ranges&#8217; Mitch Mellis [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":56711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7949,8],"tags":[8318,4305,4331,2550,1310,7951,9708,4944],"class_list":["post-56691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nab-league","category-news","tag-jay-rantall","tag-jye-chalcraft","tag-lucas-rocci","tag-mitch-mellis","tag-morrish-medal","tag-nab-league","tag-nab-league-boys-best-and-fairest","tag-ryan-byrnes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}