NATHAN Bock capped a stellar season with the Adelaide Crows by winning the Malcolm Blight Medal on Friday night.

In front of 900 guests at Adelaide’s Convention Centre, the 2008 All-Australian defender win his first gold jacket with 162 votes, ahead of captain and three-time winner Simon Goodwin (151) and Scott Thompson (147).

Bock also took out the most valuable player award, and is the first ‘new’ club champion at the club since Goodwin took his first Malcolm Blight Medal in 2000.

Since then, Andrew McLeod, Ben Hart, Mark Ricciuto and Goodwin have shared all the top honour.

Votes for the club champion award were distributed on a 4-3-2-1 basis by the five coaches – Neil Craig, assistants Ben Hart, Paul Hamilton, David Noble and Peter Jonas - with Noble and Jonas sharing the duty.

The system allowed for a maximum of 16 votes for a player in any round.

The 25-year-old Bock led the count all the way from round three, polled votes in 22 of the 23 games, only missing out in the club’s round-nine loss to West Coast at Subiaco.

His highest return was 14 votes in round 12 (against Hawthorn) and he received 13 votes in rounds two and 13.

Thompson polled the highest individual score for any round, securing 15 votes for his round-11 performance against Richmond.

Bock was a rookie draft selection in 2002 from SANFL club Woodville-West Torrens and made his AFL debut in 2004.

He played 18 matches in his first season, mainly as a forward. But after starting the 2005 season in the SANFL, Bock made the most of his opportunities when promoted to play at centre half-back.

A back injury restricted him to seven matches in 2006 but in the past two seasons he has played 45 out of a possible 46 games for a career total of 86.