North Melbourne Kangaroos superstar Ash Riddell wins best and fairest, shrugs off voting snub in grand final week

Garner has long been overlooked by the umpires despite being universally regarded as one of the tournament’s dominant players for many seasons, but the North captain was placed fifth on Monday night.

“I think he’s an absolute superstar, the best player on the team,” Riddell said of Garner.

“I know I’m biased, I run alongside him every week, but I hope he gets a chance to keep one of these going at some point because he’s had a great career.”

During counting on Monday night, North coach Darren Crocker told Fox Footy he was surprised by some of the voting.

“It’s so close, we probably had a few people left out, I thought we might have gotten that, but we didn’t quite get the votes we thought we would get, but it’s still vote counting,” he said.

Kangaroos star Emma Kearny joked team-mate Riddell needed to be “more flashy” to be noticed by referees.

“I’ll teach him my ways,” he joked. “I will teach you [Riddell] “If you learn how to run and carry the ball, maybe you’ll be noticed a little more by the referees.”

The Kangaroos will face the Brisbane Lions in the AFLW grand final at Ikon Park on Saturday night as the North look to claim their second straight win and extend their unbeaten run to 27 matches.

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