The regular long trip down to Caroline Springs paid off for Alex Paech, who was crowned the Western Football League’s Barry Priest Medallist.
Paech, who joined the Lakers this season, was a fly-in, fly-out player, with work commitments in Alice Springs.
On Thursday night, he was awarded the Western league’s highest men’s honour.
Paech finished on 16 votes, two clear of Dillon Viojo-Rainbow, who was going for his third straight Priest Medal.
Paech, who happened to be in Melbourne for the awards night, said it was a pretty special honour.
“It’s back to reality now,” he said on Monday. “I start the NT [Northern Territory} season on Friday.
“It was a massive honour and you don’t play for those sorts of accolades. They brought me in as a FIFO [fly in, fly out] player this season and to see the rewards for all those efforts is nice.”
Paech played just eight games during the regular season, the majority in the first half of the season.
He said he thought he could poll some votes early but others would overrun him, but with it being a low count he was able to hold on.
Paech said you have to have a really positive attitude to be a player that flies in for games.
“I flew in for eight games,” he said. “It’s not too bad if you have the right attitude.
“It can be tough and it can be tiring, but you have to stay positive.”
Paech played in the club’s three finals matches as well. He was named in the best in two of those three games.
He said it was disappointing not to go further in the season, but there were a lot of positives going forward.
“I could not speak highly enough of the club and the culture,” he said. “I think it was definitely disappointing [the end].
“But we lost by 10 goals to Yarraville in round one and then we went on to make a preliminary final.
“We were disappointed to not make the grand final and push for some finals success.
“There’s a lot of young boys still two to three years off their best footy which is a positive.”
Paech will now focus on the NTFL season.
It will be a new challenge for him.
“I’m playing with a new club this season,” he said. “I’m playing for Nightcliff which made the grand final last year.
“Hopefully I came contribute in some way to them being a successful club.”
Tara Murray
