Ultra-reliable small defender Jarryn Geary followed up a career-best season last year, with an even better season in 2016 to finish runner-up in the Trevor Barker Award.
The highly regarded leader, who is considered one of the candidates to replace outgoing skipper Nick Riewoldt in the role next season, established himself as St Kilda’s best defender this season, stopping a raft of the game’s best small or medium-sized forwards.
Geary polled in all but two games in the best and fairest, further underlining his exceptional consistency and ability to get the job done each and every week.
While a back injury saw him tail off at the end of the season, the middle part of the season was where Geary was at his very best. Arguably his finest performance for the year came on dual All Australian, Eddie Betts, where he held the Adelaide star to a single goal despite the Crows galloping to an 88-point win.
The 28-year-old former rookie also performed key roles on Fremantle duo Michael Walters and Hayden Ballantyne, versatile Geelong forward Daniel Menzel, North Melbourne’s Lindsay Thomas and the elusive Melbourne goal sneak Jeff Garlett. In fact, if you’re looking for a bad performance you won’t find many, if any.
Alan Richardson’s Views:
“‘Gears’ is one of the more admired members of our team. He’s physical, he’s aggressive, he challenges his teammates, he has a bit of fun with his teammates, and off the field he has really good balance there. He plays really selfless roles, he takes the oppositions best small to medium forward and we can just trust that it gets done. He’s been able to go to another level with his footy, he’s been in this caper for a while now and he said as much when he was on the dais at the best and fairest that he should be improving, he should be having a bigger influence on the game now that he’s been in the system for the time that he has. What did that look like? It went from not only controlling the oppositions best, but also winning the ball, whether that be in the air or ground level, having the courage to leave at the right time to support and intercept. It was a really positive year for ‘Gears’.
“He’s been in the leadership group for a while now, he led the team a couple of times last year in ‘Rooey’s’ absence and was pretty positive. He’s our hardest trainer; he’ll come back and be the best runner, so he sets a great example. In terms of the way he plays, he’s got a lot of respect in our group. He’s got a real balance with his leadership, his challenging, his got some real care and empathy in his leadership style but he also doesn’t mind having a laugh at the right time and that’s coming from a person who is our hardest trainer, who is one of our most aggressive and physical trainers. He almost earns the right to have a joke at the right time, which I like; he’s got a great balance.”
The Numbers:
21 games
2nd in the Trevor Barker Award
15.2 disposals
3.6 intercepts
2.8 rebound 50s
2.3 tackles
