Fremantle midfielder Caleb Serong has taken out yet another individual achievement, winning the 2021 AFL Coaches Association Best Young Player Award.
Serong was voted alongside Gold Coast’s Noah Anderson as the competition’s best young player by the league’s 18 coaches.
The pair received 35 votes each from the AFL coaches across the 2020 and 2021 seasons, finishing five votes ahead of Matt Rowell who finished on 30 votes.
Last season Serong edged out Anderson when he became the third Fremantle player to take out the NAB Rising Star Award, however, the coaches’ couldn’t split the pair for this award.
Serong said he took great pride in an award judged upon by the coaching fraternity.
“It’s a great honour, I try and judge my game on what our coaches think,” Serong said.
“I have really good chats with Justin Longmuir and Josh Carr and listen to what they think.
“To get recognised a little bit from the coaches of other teams is a great honour because they watch the game very closely.”
Serong and Anderson are former Vic Country and Vic Metro opponents, sharing plenty of time playing with or against each other from a young age.
“It was great to get named alongside Noah, he is someone I have played with and against since we were 12 years old,” Serong said.
“We have kind of come up in the system together, and he is playing great footy at the moment.”
While Serong took out the Rising Star last year, his 2021 season was arguably just as impressive, with a particularly strong finish to the year.
He was considered among Fremantle’s best in the final three rounds of the season, with 30 disposals against Brisbane, 31 disposals and two goals against West Coast and 35 disposals and nine clearances against St Kilda.
Senior coach Justin Longmuir said he had been impressed with Serong from the moment he walked into the Club.
“From day one at the Club, Caleb has shown a drive to improve all areas of his game,” Longmuir said.
“During the eight-week lockdown in 2020 he went home and trained by himself, and he came back a better player.
“This showed us his level of determination and self-motivation…he is a great team mate on and off the field and is willing to do any role the team needs.
“As a coach, I love the level of investment and passion he shows towards his own game and more importantly, the future of the Club.”
The AFL Coaches Association Best Young Player Award is presented in recognition of the player based on performances in their first two seasons of AFL Football and is determined by the weekly votes of the AFL coaches.
Previous winners: aflcoaches.com.au/awards/best-young-player-of-the-year
