Central’s Hannah Muscat took out her second Jan Corey Medal for the local 2021 AFL season, becoming the first player to do so since its inception.
Muscat was a standout player for her side and in the Women’s league all season, however, she said she was not expecting to take out the top award.
“It was definitely a bit of a surprise, just because I really thought there were so many good players in the competition,” she said. “But yeah, I definitely feel very privileged and honoured to win the medal.”
In order to get Muscat to the Jubilee Oval to be presented with the Jan Corey Medal, and to film a speech for a video to be streamed on the AFL Broken Hill Facebook page on Friday night, Muscat said AFL Broken Hill Chairman, Andrew Schmidt, told a “little white lie” to get her to the location.
“Ah, so Schmidty told me that I needed to come down to the oval to take a photo for the Leading Goal Kicker, and I literally thought to myself; ‘There better not be an interview’,” she said.
But there was – Muscat was told she had won the Jan Corey medal and needed to record an acceptance speech of sorts, for the end-of-the-count video.
Given Muscat found out a day prior to the video going public, she was required to keep the win to herself until it was announced on Friday night.
“I’m not the best at keeping secrets so it was definitely hard to keep that one under wraps.”
Central dropped just one game all season and were premiership favourites. Muscat believes having three coaches in Sheldon Hall, Ethan Kimble and James Moran gave them versatility and different areas of focus. While they were also determined to win the premiership this year in honour of previous Women’s Premiership Magpie, Chelsea Masclet, who passed away in late 2020.
“It was a pretty good season, I think,” she said. “That’s a reflection of our coaching staff because we were lucky enough to have three coaching staff this season.
“But it was disappointing not to be able to play in the Grand Final because that’s what we worked for the whole season,” said Muscat.
“When Sheldon Hall took on our coaching role again, we had the goal of doing it for Chelsea Masclet as well, so we know she would have been proud. But it’s a little disappointing not to be able to go in that Grand Final and win it for her.”
Muscat was humble when asked about being the first player to win two Jan Corey Medals.
“I don’t know, I just feel super honoured and privileged to win two times. I just find it a bit crazy, to be honest.”
Muscat won the medal by a landslide with 42 votes, and the runner-up was North’s Rebecca Deer with 17 votes.
“I didn’t really expect that at all. I thought the players that would be up there would definitely be the South girls like Abbey Stevens and Meg Ryan, and I know West struggled but I thought Brydie Mannion would be up there as well, and of course, Bec Deer (North) because she’s an absolute gun.”
IMAGE: Hannah Muscat won the 2021 Jan Corey Medal with 42 votes. PICTURE: Emily Ferguson
This article was first published on 29 September 2021.
