Bolton Joins Illustrious Group

By Daniel Scamozzi

Brilliant midfielder Jye Bolton has become just the 14^th player to have won multiple Sandover medals after winning the WAFL’s most prestigious award at Monday night’s count at Optus Stadium.

Bolton, 26, polled 52 votes to finish five clear of Subiaco captain Kyal Horsley.

In doing so, Bolton, who won the award and the E.B Cook Medal in his first season for the Tigers in 2016, joins Sammy Clarke, who was the first player to win the award in consecutive years (1933-34), as the only two Claremont players to have won the Sandover Medal more than once.

Bolton, a fierce competitor who wills himself to contest after contest through his desire for team success, received votes in 14 games, the most by any player.

Bolton, who is also a dual Simpson medallist, has not missed a game since debuting for the Tigers in round one, 2016, and says that this year was his best since joining the club from Werribee.

“Without looking at stats or anything along those lines, I think that I had a better year this year (than in 2016),” Bolton told 91.3 SportFM’s Sports Drive.

“I think that I’ve grown in a leadership perspective and also with my defensive work around stoppages and in terms of transition as well.

“They’re things that obviously don’t show up on the stats sheet but, I’m really trying to make sure that I’m making my teammates around me better players as well.

“That’s something that I’ve definitely grown my game on and we’ve ended up winning a final as opposed to coming seventh in my first year when I won it.”

Congratulations Jye.

Other Claremont players to poll votes were co-vice-captain Kane Mitchell (32), Jared Hardisty (19), Tom Curren (9), Alex Manuel (7), Haydn Busher (6), captain Ian Richardson, Bailey Rogers and Lachlan Martinis (5), Morgan Davies (3), Tom Lee, co-vice-captain Ryan Lim, Oliver Eastland and Kaiden Gilbert (1).