Inspirational midfielder Jake Murphy has been rewarded for his outstanding season by winning the E. B. Cook Medal as Claremont’s fairest-and-best player for 2013.

The nuggetty, hard-working left-footer made light of a nagging foot injury for much of the season and did not miss a match. He received 358 votes to win the trophy by just five votes from dominant ruckman Mark Seaby, with brilliant forward Ian Richardson (300 votes) in third place and first-year utility player Sam Fong (292) fourth.

This capped a wonderful season for the 23-year-old Murphy, co vice-captain of the Tigers side. He also was voted The West Australian newspaper’s WAFL Footballer of the Year and received a $5000 cash award and was the winner of the $1500 Osborne Park Volkswagen WAFL Player of the Year. He finished third behind East Fremantle midfielder Rory O’Brien and East Perth ruckman Paul Johnson in the Sandover Medal.   

In a memorable season, Murphy also was a member of the West Australian side which defeated Victoria in Northam in May. A fearless, hard-running and strong-tackling midfielder, Murphy added a new dimension to his game this year when he kicked 17 goals --- after scoring only 15 goals in his 60 league appearances in previous seasons.

Murphy, a former Scotch College student, graduated from Claremont’s development squads and was a member of the WA 16s and 18s academy squads. He played a couple of game for the Claremont colts in 2007 and was colts co-captain the following year when he finished third in the fairest-and-best award. Late in 2008 he graduated to the reserves side and made his league debut at 18 in the final qualifying-round match of the season when the Tigers beat South Fremantle by 11 points at Fremantle Oval.

This year Murphy was co vice-captain with Luke Blackwell in the league side and each proved to be outstanding deputies to captain Andrew Browne.

Murphy has made 82 league appearances in the WAFL competition and has also represented Claremont in nine Foxtel Cup contests.

Claremont finished on top of the league competition this year, losing only three of their 20 qualifying-round matches before being beaten by West Perth in the second semi-final and by East Perth in the preliminary final. Several stalwarts will be unavailable in 2014, with star forwards Chad Jones and Paul Medhurst retiring and Richardson, full-back James Thomson and ruckman Mitch Andrews planning to be overseas for all of next year.

Richardson, Jones and Medhurst kicked 123 goals this season after scoring 139 between them in 2012. They will leave a massive gap in the side’s attack.

Key defender Richard Cronin received the award as Claremont’s fairest-and-best player in the reserves side. He received 268 votes and finished ahead of Jack Richardson (251), Sam Lamont (232) and Ben Taylor (229).

The award for the fairest-and-best player in the colts side was won by midfielder Jared Hardisty, who received 362 votes and finished ahead of Harry Court (321), Joel Fiegert (298) and Max Bentley (291).

By Ken Casellas