St Kilda small defender Jarryn Geary has followed up his career-best season last year with an even better 2016, finishing runner-up in the 2016 Trevor Barker Award on Thursday night.
The highly regarded Saints leader made a strong start in the count, before surging through the middle part of the season to challenge eventual winner, Jack Steven, in the back half of the year.
After finishing fifth in last year’s best and fairest, the ultra-consistent backman has continued to demonstrate how important he is to Alan Richardson’s side.
Every week Geary is assigned the opposition’s most dangerous small or medium-sized forward and every week he gets the job done with aplomb.
His list of scalps this season runs deep, but the pick of his year came against dual All Australian, Eddie Betts (he earned another selection on Thursday night), in the Saints’ 88-point loss against Adelaide in Round 11. Despite the Crows piling on 19 goals, Geary shut out the premier small forward in the competition, holding the star to just one goal.
Across 21 games in 2016, Geary also executed exceptional performances on Fremantle pair, Hayden Ballantyne and Michael Walters, Geelong’s Daniel Menzel, Melbourne’s Jeff Garlett and Collingwood’s Alex Fasolo.
In a clear sign of his consistency this season, the Bendigo Pioneers product polled in all but two games he played in, displaying his dependability, week-in and week-out.
Where did he poll:
Round 10 v Fremantle (11 votes) – Held Michael Walter and Hayden Ballantyne goalless
Round 11 v Adelaide (15 votes) – Held Eddie Betts to nine disposals and one goal
Round 14 v Geelong (10 votes) – Held Daniel Menzel to three marks and one goal
Round 16 v Essendon (14 votes) – Held Orazio Fantasia and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti to one goal
Round 17 v Melbourne (12 votes) – Kicked two goals from half-back and nullified Jeff Garlett
