Matthews among best in league

By Marc McGowan
LIVEWIRE Casey Scorpions wingman Kyle Matthews has been rewarded for another outstanding Victorian Football League (VFL) campaign by being named in the team of the year for the second straight season.
Matthews, 21, was named on the interchange bench at the J.J Liston Trophy presentation at Moonee Valley Racecourse on Monday night after being selected on the wing in the same side in 2006.
It went some way to making up for being snubbed for the Victorian squad that destroyed Western Australia by 119 points in May.
Matthews, whose breathtaking runs through the midfield have made him one of the most exciting players in the VFL, also finished ninth in the J.J Liston Trophy, polling 12 votes from four best-on-ground performances.
Geelong’s James Byrne won the prestigious award with 22 votes from Sandringham’s Shane Valenti, who polled 20 and had already won the Fothergill-Round Medal for the young player most likely to progress to AFL ranks.
The Scorpions polled 64 votes overall, led by Matthews, Steven Harrison (eight), Shane Birss (seven), captain Nigel Carmody, Fergus Watts and Barry Brooks (all five).
Ahead of the club’s best and fairest count, the Gardner-Clark Medal, on 5 October, coach Peter Banfield highlighted the three players who had impressed him most in 2007.
“I thought Nigel Carmody had a very consistent season, Steven Harrison had his best year in my three years at the club, and Kyle Matthews played some absolutely scintillating football – he had a couple of really enormous, stand-out games,” the coach said.