Trafalgar ruckman Dylan Farrell has won the EDFL’s Best and Fairest by a single vote, after being awarded best-on-ground five times this season.

Runners up went to Buln Buln’s Matt Gray and Neerim South’s Kody Wilson, who polled 17 votes over 10 games.

It was the first year of an online vote count in the EDFL, with the league originally hoping for an in-person presentation. But after a bumpy start with technical issues, the count finally aired last Thursday on the League’s Facebook page.

Farrell watched the presentation on the couch with his fiancé and eight-week-old son. As it was a pre-recorded video, he made sure to avoid skipping to the very end which would reveal his name as winner.

“I received a few messages but I didn’t look at them, so I wanted to watch the whole thing because I thought it’d be reasonably close at the top,” he said.

Farrell said he was surprised by the end result, and plans to celebrate with his fellow players when Trafalgar hold its club presentation night.

“I didn’t really think I was going to win, I thought I might have been top five or something but not a win though.

“It was a bit of a weird feeling because we didn’t get the whole season in, it would’ve been nice to get the whole season in because we were tracking pretty well at the time,” Farrell said.

It was the 27-year-old’s first season back at his home club, after playing for Moe for three years and Buln for one year.

And without playing pre-season due to a broken thumb, it was an impressive start for the now Alf Walton medallist who dominated in his first game back against Yarragon, which scored him best on ground.

He continued to lead the midfield throughout the year, collecting three votes in his games against Neerim South in Round 2, Nyora in Round 4, Lang Lang in Round 7, and Catani in Round 14.

Farrell last won a premiership with Trafalgar in 2012, and missed a strong chance at a flag this year because of the season’s abandonment. The Bloods lost two games this year by a combined 11 points and were optimistic ahead of finals.

“We thought we had a pretty good list and we’re building on it so hopefully we’ll have a fair nudge at it next year,” he said.

The minor premiership went to Ellinbank who were undefeated.

The Reserves Gerald Heenan Medal went to Nick Fairbank of Nyora, who finished the year with 12 votes.

Poowong U18s Alex Henshall took out the Bill Cumming Medal and collected 22 votes overall.

Ellinbank U16s Jack Champion won the Ian Cooper Medal with 17 votes for the year.

Club Championship went to Ellinbank and the Most Disciplined Club went to Buln Buln.