Geraldton Guardian Mid West Sports Awards the who’s who of talent for the past 50 years

This year’s Geraldton Guardian Mid West Sports Awards mark half a century of sporting excellence in the region and over that time many hallowed names of the region have been recognised. The inaugural awards were a singular affair, with Rod Marsh the very first sportsperson to get his name recorded as a champion of the Mid West. A look into the past awards reveals an eclectic mix of sporting codes, with eight different sports covered in the first 10 years of the awards. It’s a tradition that has continued throughout the 50 years of these awards with 20 different sports being accounted for. Marrissa Drummond’s win last year was the first for mountain biking. It’s easy to forget that the Mid West’s dominance of football is a fairly recent phenomenon but as the awards have grown it is easy to see the impact football has had in the region. 2017 All-Australian Patrick Ryder was the junior Aboriginal Sports Star of the Year in 2004 and before the award was scrapped, current Carlton midfielder Jack Martin won three years in a row from 2010-2012. He wasn’t the only hat-trick winner for football as Jed Hagan, who is likely to find an AFL home in this month’s draft, has been the junior sports star for the past three years. It is also the only sport that is recognised more than once in the hall of fame with three members, after the addition of Harry Taylor tomorrow night, and no doubt there will be many more to come in the coming years. But such is the strength of talent across the Mid-West that other sports still catch the limelight in spite of the dominance football now has over the landscape. In fact, Hagan was the first footballer to win in the two main categories since Dwayne Simpson in 1997. The likes of WA Badminton service award winner Dianne Criddle or international taekwon-Do champion Joanne Licastro has meant football has taken a back seat, a rare occurrence for the Mid West. Unlike the senior sports star, the introduction of the junior sports star award didn’t see a diverse group of winners to begin with. Michael Thompson was the inaugural junior sports star winner in 1979 for badminton a sport that went on to be featured in five of the next six awards. That was mostly thanks to Karen Jupp, who won it four years straight from 1981-1984. After becoming too old for the junior category, she won the senior award in 1985 and 1986 to make it six straight awards. She was a worthy winner, taking home bronze at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in the mixed event on her way to becoming the first hall of famer in 1998. The most impressive streak in a single category, however, is Ryan Green won it for five straight years from 1989-1993 and picked up a sixth in 1995. Green’s water skiing exploits are legendary as a 14-time Australian champion who took home bronze in the 2011 Overall World Championships and has 33 national titles. The only person who was able to stop his run was fellow hall of famer Salli Wills, who reached the top step of the podium at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria for beam and also grabbed a bronze as part of the women’s team final for good measure. Anyone who has three or more wins for sports star of the year has gone on to feature in the hall of fame, with new edition Fergus Kavanagh winning the junior in 1999, 2001 and 2002, with the exception of Hagan who hasn’t quite started a career to be able to retire from yet. On the other end of the spectrum, Taylor will become the first hall of fame inductee to have never won any previous honour at the Mid-West Sports awards, perhaps reflecting his late bloomer status of not being drafted to the AFL until the age of 20. Lee Poletti holds the distinction for the longest gap between first and last honours, having won senior sports star in 1994 before winning it twice in a row in 1998 and 1999 after winning silver in the women’s fours at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. She then added her fourth and so far final honour in 2002, eight years after her first showing the longevity she spent at the top of her game. The awards are not just for international or national stars, with many a local hero being featured as well. Brad Delane won senior star in 2006 and is still playing hockey to this day, nearly 30 years after his first game, while Kurt Mead can still be found in the diamond 14 years after his junior star award. Every name that has been featured in the awards over the past 50 years has been truly exceptional in their field and the fact the Mid West continues to produce talent that can match it with the likes mentioned above is a credit to everyone involved in sport across our region.