GABA best players recognised

The GABA’s best players for the 2015/16 season have been recognised at their annual awards ceremony.

The event honoured players from every division across the competition, while also serving as a platform to announce the S&K Geraldton Buccaneers 2016 squad for the upcoming SBL season.

Unsurprisingly, Chapman Valley star and Buccs captain Mat Wundenberg took out the Mitchell and Brown best player award for a record eighth time, finishing 27 votes clear of his Warriors teammate Allan Ehte.

Aaron Ralph placed third one vote back, despite missing a large chunk of the season, while Hawk Stuart Egan was the best of the non-Warriors in fourth on 55.

Wundenberg said it felt awesome to win and that he was humbled to be recognised again.

“I think I was a little bit lucky this year. Aaron Ralph had a fantastic year, he just got injured and had a few personal reasons to leave — he was on a holiday and so forth — so I think if he’d played a full season he would have definitely given it a shake-up,” he said.

“We’ll get stuck into it on the weekend and hopefully help get Chapman Valley another championship, and then I’ll really focus on the SBL season.”

Meanwhile, Railways star Nat Stade won her second division one MVP award, after producing another strong season with her new club.

The dynamic point guard finished on 97 votes, 10 clear of Stateside centre Abbie McDonald.

Stade said fitting in at her new club had been easy but that she had unfinished business with her side still heavily involved in the play-offs.

“All the girls are really friendly, nice and easy to get along with, so that’s good,” she said.

“They’re a good bunch of girls to gel with and easy to play with on the court, so that makes it a lot easier.”

The awards were held last week at the Wintersun Hotel.