J.G. Craig Competition News

Ray Stokes & Ken French

The 2025/26 J.G. Craig competition reached its conclusion on February 8 with Brunswick and Oakleigh squaring off in the Final.

Congratulations to Ken French and Ray Stokes on their appointment to this game. As anticipated, they both demonstrated their worthiness for the role and did an excellent job managing the game.

Congratulations to Brunswick on winning the final. And to one of our colleagues, John Doig, who swapped his umpire hat for an Oakleigh assistant coach's hat during the tournament, well done on your efforts in helping Oakleigh reach the final John.

In this edition of the post-competition proceedings, a new aspect was introduced: the President of your Association, who has traditionally presented the Best Player awards for each Group, at the Grand Final since 1978, was not required to perform this duty. As you know, it was recently decided to name these awards after umpires who have provided outstanding service to the Association. It was wonderful that all of these gentlemen were able to attend and personally present the awards named in their honour.

Unfortunately for Noki, the winner of his medal, was unable to attend. We are grateful that Noki still chose to attend and be part of this inaugural presentation.

North Group Noki Tryphonos Award - Harry Bowles of Kew

South Group James Barrett Award - Aarav Bhasin of Oakleigh

East Group Merv Hindson Award - David Arul of Croydon

West Group Mike Wheelahan Award - Aariz Alam Khan of Melton

Many thanks to our major sponsor, Community Bank, Malvern East, for their sponsorship of these awards.

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