PORTLAND footballer Toby Jennings has capped off an impressive individual season by taking out the club’s senior best and fairest at Thursday's presentation evening.

Jennings, who was a pivotal player through the middle this year for the Tigers, was one of the two hot favourites to take out top prize coming into the evening alongside key defender Jake Wilson.

While Wilson got out to a hot start in the voting through the opening third of the season, Jennings was able to slowly reel in the margin to ultimately come away with the best and fairest, with Wilson claiming the runner-up award.  

Jennings adds another award to his cabinet for this season, to go along with the Hampden senior football MVP award, and he said taking out the club’s highest on-field honour was a great way to cap off the season.

“Obviously team success is what you want at the end of the year, but a bit of recognition for what you’ve done as a player is also nice,” he said.

“I’ve enjoyed being amongst the group even in spite of us not getting the results on the board, it’s been good every weekend and we’ve stuck together and had a crack.

“I think the boys all played for ‘Holty’ (outgoing senior coach Jarrod Holt), even if we didn’t get the wins, we had fun and played the way we wanted to.”

Jennings said there was praise to go around for some strong performances elsewhere in the Tigers’ list, most notably Wilson but also within the rest of the group.

“It’s unreal having (Wilson) back there, he was in the VFL team of the year in his prime and he was really handy for us all year… we lost games by 100 that we probably would’ve lost by 200 if we didn’t have him, he would have been very deserving of the award,” he said.

“It was really good to get ‘Benny’ (Malcolm) back midway through the season, it helped us get a tighter group through the midfield where we knew what each other were doing.

“That experience he’s got just helps us, it gives us direction, so we know what we’re doing.”

Fortunately for Portland, they look set to retain their man for the 2024 season, as when asked about his future plans Jennings simply said, “I’ll be here.”

In the other awards, Davey Denboer had a remarkable second half of the season vote-count wise and was rewarded with the most consistent player award, while Paul Procter’s tireless work in the defensive 50 saw him take out most determined player.

Young key forward Will Hunter took out the seniors’ best first year player, in an especially impressive achievement given the struggles the Tigers had going forwards at times, and first-year captain Josh Edwards.

Reserves and under-18.5s

In the reserves, Zac Stuchbery topped the vote count to take out the best and fairest, while Marcus England’s performances during his brief stint in the twos were enough to earn him runner-up honours.

In other awards, Lachie Stephens took out most consistent player, Digby Sharp was awarded best defensive player, and Sharn Robinson received most determined player honours.

The best of Portland’s eldest junior grade were also honoured on Thursday evening, and in an impressive individual feat bottom-age player Kodi Jones took out the best and fairest award.

Jones, who only last season was still in under-16s, played a key role for the side, especially in the second half of the season as they made their ultimately unsuccessful push for the finals.

Meanwhile, Darcy Campbell took out the runner-up award despite playing 12 out of 18 rounds in the seniors and therefore just six under-18.5 games.

In the other awards, Noah Nicholls took out most consistent, Jake Tunstall was named most improved, Mitchell Finck was most determined, and Lachie Compton took out the coaches award.