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

Garner, although universally regarded as one of the dominant players in the competition over many seasons, has long been overlooked by the umpires, but the North captain finished equal fifth on Monday night.

“I think she’s an absolute superstar, the best player in the comp,” Riddell said of Garner.

“I know I’m biased, running alongside her every week, but hopefully she’ll get a chance to hold one of these up at some stage because she’s had a stellar career.”

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

“It’s very close, there’s probably been a couple left out, which I thought we may have got, but we didn’t quite get the votes we thought we were going to, but anyway, that’s vote count,” he said.

Kangaroos star Emma Kearny joked her teammate Riddell needed to be “flashier” to get noticed by the umpires.

“I’ll teach her my ways,” she joked. “I’ll teach you [Riddell] how to run and carry with the ball, and maybe you’ll get noticed a little bit more from the umpires.”

The Kangaroos will face the Brisbane Lions in the AFLW grand final at Ikon Park on Saturday night, as North seek to claim their second straight premiership and grow their unbeaten run to 27 games.

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