Aaron Sandilands has won The West Australian/McInerney Ford AFL Footballer of the Year award by the narrowest of margins from team mate Paul Hasleby.

Sandilands, who won a $40,000 XT Falcon from McInerney Ford, polled 25 votes to win by one vote from Hasleby (24).

Paul Duffield, who had a break out season in 2009, almost made it a clean sweep of the placings for Fremantle after finishing in fourth spot with 19 votes.

The result of the State’s richest prize in football was up in the air until the last round of the season, when Fremantle played Geelong at Skilled Stadium.

It was the third time Hasleby, who has had a stellar season after missing a year of football following a knee reconstruction, has finished runner up in the award.

If the 28-year-old had polled top votes in the round 22 clash with the Cats, he would have tied with Sandilands.

Senior coach Mark Harvey said the win was testament to how far Sandilands had come as a player.

“More importantly, on the back of being an All-Australian player last year, he has backed it up again this year,” he said.

“Aaron’s a big part of what we are doing with our young group and it is essential that we keep Aaron. In football terms he’s actually come out of himself.

“The way he has conducted himself as a leader both around the club and on game day has been outstanding.”