Dale Thomas was voted as the best player on the ground by one head coach in Saturday’s win over St Kilda polling the maximum five votes from either Mick Malthouse or Ross Lyon in the AFLCA Champion Player of the Year voting.
Thomas (31 disposals, eight marks and four tackles) also picked up a single vote from the other head coach and has now polled in four straight games and sits in sixth position on the competition leaderboard.
Thomas charged by AFL MRP for striking
Both Malthouse and Lyon handed out 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 votes to selected players from the weekend match with voting submitted anonymously.
There were three Magpies to poll a total of seven votes each with the coaches highlighting the efforts of Travis Cloke (16 disposals and three goals), Leon Davis (23 disposals and one goal) and Scott Pendlebury (32 disposals and nine tackles).
Magpie defender Ben Reid (nine disposals and six marks) polled two votes from one head coach for his efforts on Saint skipper Nick Riewoldt while Nick Dal Santo (32 disposals) was the only member of the opposition to feature in the voting (1 vote).
Past winners of the prestigious award include Dane Swan (2010), Gary Ablett Jnr (2007-09), Simon Goodwin and Adam Goodes (joint winners in 2006), Barry Hall (2005) and Warren Tredrea (2004).
Collingwood v St Kilda voting
| Votes | Player | Club |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Travis Cloke | Coll |
| 7 | Leon Davis | Coll |
| 7 | Scott Pendlebury | Coll |
| 6 | Dale Thomas | Coll |
| 2 | Ben Reid | Coll |
| 1 | Nick Dal Santo | STK |
Collingwood leader board for the AFLCA Champion Player of the Year (number of matches the player polled)
| Votes | Player |
|---|---|
| 37 | Dale Thomas (5) |
| 34 | Scott Pendlebury (6) |
| 27 | Dane Swan (3) |
| 15 | Chris Dawes (2) |
| 15 | Heath Shaw (4) |
| 15 | Travis Cloke (5) |
| 13 | Leon Davis (2) |
| 10 | Steele Sidebottom (1) |
| 9 | Jarryd Blair (1) |
| 8 | Ben Johnson (2) |
| 7 | Luke Ball (2) |
| 6 | Andrew Krakouer (3) |
| 5 | Harry O'Brien (2) |
| 4 | Dayne Beams (1) |
| 4 | Leigh Brown (1) |
| 4 | Ben Reid (2) |
| 3 | Sharrod Wellingham (1) |
| 2 | Darren Jolly (1) |
| 1 | Simon Buckley (1) |
| 1 | Chris Tarrant (1) |
Leader board for the AFLCA Champion Player of the Year
| Votes | Player | Club |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | Marc Murphy | Carlton |
| 46 | Chris Judd | Carlton |
| 44 | Dean Cox | West Coast |
| 43 | Jobe Watson | Essendon |
| 41 | Joel Selwood | Geelong |
| 38 | Dale Thomas | Collingwood |
| 37 | Lance Franklin | Hawthorn |
| 36 | Ryan O'Keefe | Sydney |
| 36 | Scott Pendlebury | Collingwood |
| 36 | Andrew Swallow | North Melbourne |
