WAFL Team of the YearThursday, September 1, 2016 - 1:32 PM - by Chris Pike

THE 2016 McDonald's WAFL Premiership Season is now over with the AHG Finals Series beginning this weekend and the WAFL has announced its Team of the Year for 2016.

After each and every week of the season, a WAFL Team of the Week has been selected and named at www.wafl.com.au. Now based on the selection of those sides over the 23 rounds, a Team of the Year has been selected and named.

A total of 194 WAFL players over the course of the season were named at least once to the Team of the Week.

Peel Thunder had the most players named with 26 being included in the Team of the Week at least once. East Perth had 25 players with at least one appearance, East Fremantle 24, Subiaco 23, West Perth 22, South Fremantle 21, Claremont 20, Perth 17 and Swan Districts 16.

While Subiaco had 23 players named at least once, they had the most return appearances with players from the minor premier taking up places in the Team of the Week on 76 occasions.

West Perth was next best in number of appearances with 72 ahead of South Fremantle with 64, Peel Thunder 56, Claremont 54, East Perth 54, East Fremantle 52, Perth 50 and Swan Districts 28.

Here is the selected team of 22 plus three emergencies:

BACK: Greg Broughton (S), Tyler Keitel (WP), Aaron Heal (S)
HALF-BACK: Luke Meadows (WP), Blayne Wilson (SF), Michael Sinclair (P)
CENTRE: Kyal Horsley (S), Clint Jones (P), Aaron Black (WP)
HALF-FORWARD: George Hampson (EF), Darcy Cameron (C), Haiden Schloithe (SF)  
FORWARD: Liam Ryan (S), Hamish Shepheard (S), Ben Saunders (SF) 
RUCK: Paul Johnson (EP), Shane Nelson (WP), Jye Bolton (C)
INTERCHANGE: Chris Phelan (S), Dean Munns (WP), Rory O'Brien (PT), Ashton Hams (SF)
EMERGENCIES: Rohan Kerr (WP), Liam Anthony (EF), Andrew Strijk (WP)

The automatic selections in the WAFL Team of the Year for 2016 were those with the most number of times being named in the Team of the Week.

Those with the most appearances were West Perth's Shane Nelson and Claremont's Jye Bolton making it 10 times apiece while Clint Jones from Perth was next best with nine while Subiaco's Chris Phelan, West Perth's Tyler Keitel, Perth's Michael Sinclair and Subiaco's Greg Broughton had six appearances.

Starting with the back-line, West Perth's Keitel was the automatic choice as one of the key defenders after his outstanding first full season of league football and having made the Team of the Week seven times.

South Fremantle's Blayne Wilson was included five times to be named at centre half-back.

The other key defenders with multiple appearances in the Team of the Week were East Perth's Eric Mackenzie (4), South Fremantle's Josh Pullman (3), East Fremantle's Matthew Jupp (3), Subiaco's Declan Jackson (3), East Perth's Nathan Blee (3), East Perth's Tom Barrass (3), Subiaco's Jordan Lockyer (3) and Claremont pair Haydn Busher and Anton Hamp (both 3).

Subiaco's Greg Broughton and Aaron Heal along with West Perth's Luke Meadows and Perth's Michael Sinclair fill the other four positions in the back-line.

Broughton was named in the Team of the Week seven times, and finished the season especially strongly named in every round between 19 and 22. His teammate Heal had an outstanding season stopping some of the opposition's best forwards and was named four times.

Meadows and Sinclair make up the two half-back positions after being named in the Team of the Week four and seven times respectively with their ability to set up play particularly impressive.

Other defenders in contention included West Perth's Blake Wilhelm (4), South Fremantle's Marlion Pickett (4), Peel Thunder's Ethan Hughes (4), Perth's Toby Gianatti (3), East Perth's Mitch Fraser (3), Claremont's Matthew Davies (3), Peel's Anthony Morabito (3) and East Fremantle trio Josh Cuneo (3), Ryan Lester-Smith (3) and Jayden Schofield (2).

The forward-line featured some obvious selections including Bernie Naylor Medallist Ben Saunders who was named five times and runner-up Hamish Shepheard who appeared five times as well.

Claremont's Darcy Cameron was named centre half-forward after being in the Team of the Week six times.

East Fremantle's George Hampson might have battled injury and spent time in the midfield, but he was a match-winner for the Sharks when fit in 2016 and is named at half-forward having made the Team of the Week six times.

Subiaco's Liam Ryan is also in a forward pocket after making the Team of the Week six times as did South Fremantle's Haiden Schloithe who is at half-forward.

There were plenty of forwards who were unlucky not to make who had multiple appearances in the Team of the Week.

That includes Subiaco's Clancy Wheeler (5), West Perth's Max Duffy (4), South Fremantle's Mason Shaw (4), East Perth's Tom Lamb (4), South Fremantle's Blaine Johnson (3), East Perth's Craig Wulff (3), West Perth's Michael Lourey (3), Claremont's Ian Richardson, Jack Bradshaw and Beau Maister (all 3), Peel Thunder's Blair Bell (3), East Perth's Malcolm Karpany (3) and East Fremantle's Brett Peake (2).

There was no standout selection as the ruckman but there was just one named in the Team of the Year given the ability of Cameron, Shepheard and Keitel to all spend time filling in if called upon.

Subiaco's Lachlan Delahunty did play mostly in the ruck as he earned five nominations in the Team of the Week but he also played up forward and because of the amount of games he missed through injury wasn’t named in the final Team of the Year.

Claremont's Mitch Andrews was named in the Team of the Week four times, East Perth's Paul Johnson four and South Fremantle's Brock Higgins three to be the three standouts. In the end, the nod went to the Royals veteran Johnson.

The midfield was by far the most difficult of the positions to fill because of the sheer number of players with multiple nominations available.

West Perth's Nelson, Claremont's Bolton and Perth's Jones were the three obvious choices to start in the middle alongside Johnson though with 29 Team of the Week nominations between them.

Because they played much of the season on the wing, West Perth's Aaron Black and Subiaco's Kyal Horsley were named in those positions in the Team of the Year ahead of other midfielders. Black was named to the Team of the Week six times and Horsley six as well.

Subiaco's Chris Phelan was named seven times so he takes a position on the bench along with Peel Thunder's Rory O'Brien (6) and South Fremantle's Ashton Hams (5).

Because those in the midfield already are of an attacking nature, West Perth tagger Dean Munns earned a position on the bench after being named to the Team of the Week four times.

Those unlucky to miss out were included as emergencies including East Fremantle's Liam Anthony (6) and West Perth's Rohan Kerr (6). Andrew Strijk was also named five times but they were split between the back and forward-lines and it was hard to decide on his preferred spot ahead of regulars in their position.

Bringing down 194 players who made at least one appearance in the Team of the Week to 25 was not an easy task.

Among the others most unlucky to miss out include Peel Thunder Matt de Boer (5), Perth's Julian Jacobs (4), Perth's Zac Fisher (4), East Perth's Patrick McGinnity (4), Subiaco's Leigh Kitchin (4), Subiaco's Adam Cockie (4), Swan Districts' Adam Faulkner (4), South Fremantle's Shane Hockey (4), West Perth's Jay van Berlo (4) and South Fremantle's Steven Verrier (4).

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
As well as a Team of the Week, a WAFL Player of the Week was selected following each round of the 2016 McDonald's WAFL Premiership Season, they were:

ROUND 1 – Kyle Halligan (Subiaco)
ROUND 2 – Shane Hockey (South Fremantle)
ROUND 3 – Aaron Zucconi (Perth)
ROUND 4 – Corey Adamson (East Perth)
ROUND 5 – Josh Pullman (South Fremantle)
ROUND 6 – Shane Nelson (West Perth)
ROUND 7 – Ben Sokol (Subiaco)
ROUND 8 – George Hampson (East Fremantle)
ROUND 9 – Hamish Shepheard (Subiaco)
ROUND 10 – Michael Barlow (Peel Thunder)
ROUND 11 – Jye Bolton (Claremont)
ROUND 12 – Clint Jones (Perth)
ROUND 13 – Brock Higgins (South Fremantle)
ROUND 14 – Adam Faulkner (Swan Districts)
ROUND 15 – Chris Phelan (Subiaco)
ROUND 16 – Jay van Berlo (West Perth)
ROUND 17 – Andrew Haydon (Peel Thunder) 
ROUND 18 – Mitch Fraser (East Perth)
ROUND 19 – Greg Broughton (Subiaco)
ROUND 20 – Mason Shaw (South Fremantle)
ROUND 21 – Max Duffy (West Perth)
ROUND 22 – Jack Bradshaw (Claremont)
ROUND 23 – Justin Simpson (Swan Districts)