While a humble Luke Ryan wanted to hand his Simpson Medal to a deserving teammate, the 21-year-old said it was an honour to help lead Peel Thunder to their second consecutive WAFL Grand Final victory.
The Thunder defeated Subiaco by 16-points in football’s farewell to Domain Stadium and Ryan will go down in history as the 72nd and final winner of the best-on-ground medal at Subiaco Oval.
“It’s an unreal feeling. I haven’t won (a grand final) since the under 16s and words can’t describe at the moment. I’ll remember this for the rest of my life,” Ryan said.
“It’s a massive honour, winning the Simpson Medal in the last game at Subi.
“It’s not so much the medal, it’s winning with the premiership medal with the boys. Best on ground is another incentive but winning the game was just an unreal feeling, so I’m really happy.”
Ryan said if the voting was up to him, he would have awarded the medal to fellow defender Ryan Nyhuis – who took seven marks and kept Subiaco’s star forward Liam Ryan goalless on the day.
Liam Ryan went into the game as the WAFL’s Bernie Naylor Medallist as leading goalkicker in 2017.
“Nyhuis was massive, I would have voted him best on ground,” Ryan said.
“To keep Liam Ryan goalless after what he had done all year. Credit to him, he’s a super player and I’m really proud of him.”
In a see-sawing contest, the Lions took the ascendency in the third term but were unable to crack Peel – thanks in part to Luke Ryan’s efforts, taking nine marks with his 23 disposals.
“We knew they were going to come at us. They’re a top side,” Ryan said.
“The third quarter is the premiership quarter and they came at us really strong. To the boys' credit we stuck strong together and got the ball going our way.”
Peel were rocked by losing retiring veteran Zac Dawson early in the contest with a leg injury.
Dawson kicked Peel’s opener and set up their second, and Ryan said the Thunder players gained extra motivation to send their teammate off with a win.
“It was a hard game but we just stuck to what we knew and we gave in extra effort because of Daws,” Ryan said.
“We all had a little bit of ‘inner Daws’ in ourselves and came out hard and strong and physical, exactly like he would play.
“We had 21 of us do it, so I’m really proud.”
