SYDNEY Swans co-captain Adam Goodes' stature at the club continues to soar after he won a third Bob Skilton Medal in Sydney on Friday night.
Goodes polled a total of 615 votes to comfortably win this year's award as the Swans' best player from Rhyce Shaw and Josh Kennedy, who tied for second on 573 votes.
Ryan O'Keefe (542) and Ted Richards (523) rounded out the top five, but Goodes was a clear and popular winner.
"It's always an honour to receive a medal like this," Goodes said after receiving the medal from Skilton at a packed function at Darling Harbour in Sydney.
"It's been a very special year for this football club. No doubt this has been my most consistent year in the last five years.
"I would like to thank my teammates for making me look good on the field."
The club's five coaches - John Longmire, John Blakey, Leigh Tudor, Stuart Dew and Mark Stone - cast votes after each game in 2011 and could award up to 10 points for as many or as few players as they deem appropriate.
So the maximum one player can earn from one match is 50 votes, something Goodes achieved in the round 24 victory over the Brisbane Lions.
It was the first time a Swan had earned 50 votes from a match in three years.
An extraordinary second half of the season was the key to Goodes' victory, earning votes in every game from round 13 until their final match, the semi-final loss to Hawthorn.
With a premiership medallion from their 2005 triumph over West Coast, two Brownlow Medals and now three Bob Skilton Medals in his keeping, Goodes is clearly among the best players in the 137-year history of the South Melbourne/Sydney Swans.
The 31-year-old passed the 300-game milestone in the semi-final against the Hawks, just the second Swan ever to do so.
Barring injury, early next season Goodes will quickly surpass former teammate and great friend Michael O'Loughlin as the club's all-time games record-holder, which currently stands at 303.
"Here's to another hundred," Goodes said to much applause after being recognised for the 300-game milestone.
It is Goodes' first Bob Skilton Medal in five years, with his other two victories coming in his Brownlow Medal-winning years of 2003 and 2006.
He joins Gerard Healy, Ron Clegg and Billy Williams as three-time winners of the medal, behind only Paul Kelly (four medals), Peter Bedford, J. Herbie Matthews (both five) and Skilton himself, who won an incredible nine best and fairests between 1958 and 1968.
In a superb season, when he was named All Australian for the fourth time, Goodes also took home the Paul Roos Award for best player in the finals series.
And to top it off, he also claimed the Paul Kelly Players' Player award, voted on by his teammates.
It was a sentimental night for the club, with retiring trio Tadhg Kennelly, Craig Bolton and Daniel Bradshaw honoured and co-captain Jarrad McVeigh and team manager John Payne awarded life membership.
Equal runner-up Kennedy, 23, showed his importance to the club by finishing second in voting, having finished third in 2010, his first year with the Swans after leaving Hawthorn.
Kennedy revealed afterwards his father John had made a surprise appearance for the night, while he also expressed his gratitude to the Swans.
"I can't thank the club enough for getting me up here and giving me a role in the side," he said.
"I hope to pay them back over many years."
Shaw, who turns 30 next week, also had a terrific year and added the Barry Round Trophy as best clubman to his equal-second in the Bob Skilton Medal.
Nick Smith, who finished sixth overall in voting for the medal, claimed the Dennis Carroll Trophy as the club's most improved player, while 19-year-old centre half-forward Sam Reid won the Rising Star Award.
Dan Hannebery, Shane Mumford, Ben McGlynn and Jarrad McVeigh rounded out the top 10 in voting for the Bob Skilton Medal.
On a night when 2005 premiership players Kennelly and Bolton were honoured, the final word was left to Goodes.
"It's up to the rest of the players in the room to make a new batch of premiership players next year," he said.
TOP TEN IN THE 2011 BOB SKILTON MEDAL:
1st Adam Goodes (615)
=2nd Rhyce Shaw and Josh Kennedy (573)
4th Ryan O’Keefe (542)
5th Ted Richards (523)
6th Nick Smith (519)
7th Daniel Hannebery (488)
8th Shane Mumford (439)
9th Ben McGlynn (411)
10th Jarrad McVeigh (396)
