A record crowd of 215 witnessed senior footballers and netballers scoop awards at a lavish reception at Ballarat Leagues Club on Monday night, where Mwareow polled 13 votes to finish equal second behind Rokewood-Corindhap's Troy Richardson (18 votes).

It was a remarkable performance from the crafty footballer, who only played his first game for the club in round three and was also in and out of the senior team on a number of occasions.

Navarre joint coach Ben Martin was full of praise for the young Nauruan.

``He missed the first two games at the start of the year because they got here (Australia) late,'' Martin said.

``He is very dangerous, he hits up the targets and can get the ball and is very hard to tackle.

``He kicked a few goals too.''

Natte-Bealiba's Stephen Ross helped add some sparkle to his team's dull season by taking out the night's feature award, the Peter Smith Memorial Medal as the senior best and fairest.

The 23 year-old Ross, who represented the LPFL in interleague duties this season and was also a member of the VCFL team, polled 24 votes to win by six to Skipton's Keirnan Molloy and a further two to Tom Blackford.

The Courier player of the year also went to Ross, who won with a total of 24 votes. Rob Greenbank (Carn-Lint), Stephen Tung (Illabarook), Eamon Johnson (Lexton) and Lloyd Bennett (Lexton) all tied for second on 20 votes.

The netball league's senior best and fairest award was won by Lexton's all-rounder Lauren Atkinson, who scored with a total of 25 votes. Rokewood-Corindhap's Rebel Anwyl won the reserves award with 22 votes.

Other award winners were Darren Grenfell from Rokewood-Corindhap who won the reserves goalkickiong with 45 goals and James McNamee, also from the Grasshoppers, who won the senior goalkicking with 77 majors. Carngham-Linton claimed the club championship with 398 points from Ararat Eagles (380) and Skipton (340), Allan and Debbie Weir from Natte-Bealiba were adjudged the administrators of the year and retiring league chairman Graham Layley received an appreciation award for his tireless work over 34 years with Skipton and the Lexton Plains FL.