Jace Cormack: Saluting a champion at the top of his game ahead of tomorrow night’s Hayward Medal count

Tomorrow night, I expect the 2021 Hayward Medal to go Augusta-Margaret River’s Simon Moore, Busselton’s Mitch Tenardi, or even to last year’s winner, Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault’s Brendan Tingey. But it might be that none of them is the South West Football League’s best footballer right now. That designation surely belongs to Donnybrook’s Jace Cormack. A man who already has a Hayward to his name, Cormack, pictured, is the best pure accumulator of the football in the competition. His elite ruck-to-rover chemistry with big man Nick Martin is unrivalled in this competition, and he leads his Donnybrook midfield from the front and with little help week in, week out. But with his side languishing near the depths of the ladder this season, winning votes over players from opposition clubs might prove almost impossible. The Dons finished ninth, with three wins to their name this season. Only one of the past seven Hayward Medal winners have done so with their team missing finals — that player, Jace Cormack. Brendan Tingey won it last year with his side finishing second and the Lions finished unbeaten the year Jesse Crichton won it. AMR’s Mitch Lynn had the worst record of the other six winners in that period, with the Hawks finishing fifth with an 11-7 record in 2018. In Donnybrook’s three wins this season, South Western Times journalists named Cormack among his team’s best in all of them. More SWFL: He was also named their best in their round two clash with Bunbury, which they won on the day but was later ruled a defeat. Three votes in that game should be almost assured. He tamed Bunbury midfielders Jesse Gribble and Harry Creasey almost single-handedly, spread hard enough to win as much ball on the outside as he did around stoppages and bobbed up with a goal of his own. He is also likely to poll three votes in their round 15 win over Harvey, and at least two in their win over Eaton a fortnight before that. But it’s votes in losses that will hurt him, and Donnybrook had plenty of losses. He is their go-to man at stoppages, their outlet kick from defence and their leading ball winner in contested and uncontested situations. He runs harder than just about anyone else in the competition, and contributes on the scoreboard — across their four wins he kicked six goals from the midfield, going without a goal in just one of them. So other than a chance to express my admiration for the way he goes about his football, what I’m trying to say about Cormack is that while his chances of winning the medal tomorrow night are not nil, but slim, let’s not forget the season he’s had.