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Despite not polling in the first seven rounds of the season, the Eagles\u2019 ruckman was more than a little surprised to hear his name called at the end last night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have the greatest start to the year, so coming away with the medal was pretty unexpected,\u201d McLennan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t something I planned for coming here on the night, I didn\u2019t think that would happen, but obviously, I\u2019m pretty stoked.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLennan was lucky enough to share last night\u2019s success with fellow Eagle and Ivan Tansing Medallist in the reserves vote count, Dale Lappin, with the two sharing a long history at East Geelong.<\/p>\n
\u201cDale and I played a season together a couple years ago, so we\u2019ve got a pretty special bond and speaking to him, he\u2019s pretty stoked, we\u2019re both happy for each other,\u201d McLennan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club at East Geelong is a really special part of my life, I\u2019ve actually been an Eagle longer than most of the senior players, having arrived to the club in 2017, so this would be my sixth season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just progressively worked on my game and gotten better each year, which has taken us here.\u201d<\/p>\n Reserves best and fairest Dale Lappin said he was \u201cpretty excited\u201d to accept the Ivan Tansing Medal, during a season East Geelong\u2019s reserves were aiming to go undefeated.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re pretty stacked as a group at the moment, to be honest,\u201d Lappin said.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom when I first started at the club to where we are now, the training standard and the standard of players we have right now has just changed so much.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s exciting times.\u201d<\/p>\n An Eagle since 2019, Lappin credited his teammates and the club with a large portion of his success during what has been an emotional year for all East Geelong members, particularly with the sudden passing of reserves coach Craig \u201cDoc\u201d Carey.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has sort of galvanised the group a little, in the sense that it\u2019s brought us all closer together to achieve the end goal after what had happened with Doc,\u201d Lappin added.<\/p>\n \u201cMoving forward, we won\u2019t change our approach too much as a side heading into finals, we\u2019ll just try to think of it as another game and not let it get in our heads.\u201d<\/p>\n To round out the night, McLennan (ruck) earned a Team of the Year selection alongside Eagles teammates Ryan Rich (back), Tom Cordner-Maas (centre line), Ryan Lempa (half-forward), Jake Watson-Serle (half-forward) and John McIntyre (interchange).<\/p>\n East Geelong’s Ben Boseley was appointed Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n McLennan and his seniors teammates face Inverleigh Saturday for a spot in the GDFL firsts Grand Final, while Lappin and his reserves square off with Inverleigh\u2019s seconds in the game before for a spot in the reserves decider.<\/p>\n Here is the top-10 list of vote-getters in the Whitley Medal count:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2022\/08\/2H3A2246-1-300x200.jpg\")
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