Deutscher polled 25 votes to win the award in front of Kalkee’s Brendan Hobbs, 20 votes, and Brendan McDonald, 19 votes, also of Kalkee.

Deutscher’s brother Connor also polled a few votes on the night, finishing with 13.

“I’m pretty stoked and excited. I wasn’t too concerned about Connor –  I had a fair head start on him,” he said.

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The ruckman said he had enjoyed playing with the Southern Roos in an undefeated regular season.

“There’s a pretty good vibe at the club with a really strong atmosphere this year,” Deutscher said.

Again though, the side had a scare in finals. The team did manage to avoid exiting the competition in straight sets for the third season running, defeating Natimuk United in the preliminary final. 

On Saturday, the Southern Roos will meet the Storm in the reserves decider.

“We are going to treat it as another game; we won’t count our chickens before they are hatched,” he said.

“It was good to break the ice with that finals win after not winning one for a couple of years.”