WITH question marks over superstar Erin Phillips' fitness coming into the 2020 NAB AFLW season, the race for the AFLW best and fairest is wide open.
Womens.afl conducted an exclusive survey with one player representative from each club. The final question? Who will be 2020's best of the best?
Phillips has won two of the three AFLW best and fairests (2017 and 2019) but is on the comeback trail from a torn ACL suffered in the 2019 Grand Final.
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She is normally a shoo-in for these types of questions, but is no certainty to line up in round one. Emma Kearney – the one other woman to have won an AFLW best and fairest – consequently picked up the most votes with three.
The powerful North Melbourne midfielder didn't quite reach her 2018 heights last year, but is comfortably one of the best clearance players in the competition.
Perennial vote-getters Dana Hooker (now at West Coast after three years at Fremantle) and Karen Paxman (Melbourne) received two nominations each.
Seven players were given a single vote, including Phillips. North Melbourne duo Jasmine Garner (forward) and Jess Duffin (defender) were the only non-midfielders named out of the 10 players.
Duffin has since withdrawn from the season due to pregnancy; the survey was conducted before her announcement.
Voting results
3 – Emma Kearney (North Melbourne)
2 – Dana Hooker (West Coast), Karen Paxman (Melbourne)
1 – Kiara Bowers (Fremantle), Monique Conti (Richmond), *Jess Duffin (North Melbourne), Jasmine Garner (North Melbourne), Alicia Eva (GWS), Elise O'Dea (Melbourne), Erin Phillips (Adelaide)
*survey conducted before Duffin announced she would be missing the season through pregnancy
This is the final part of a series which saw 14 players – one from every club – surveyed anonymously about who they regard as the best in the competition. Check womens.afl for all survey results.