The night proceeded with a memorable speech from reserve grade coach Graeme Martin along with a few words from his coaching staff.

Martin in only his second year with the club and after coming from Group Six congratulated  many a player  for  standing  up during hard times this season and truly representing  the Doggies fighting spirit.

The team presentations finished with outgoing under 18s coach Peter Leffley reminding everyone present in the room that all clubs go through hard times and the hard times only make people, teams and clubs stronger.

Leffley was so proud of not only his under 18s team and what they did to get themselves to the grand final this year, with him having to be away for most training sessions but also many other  players who have started to take ownership and leadership within the club to ensure a strong future.

On the night, the club awards went Abbey Montgomery (Female Player of the Year), Lepani Waqa (Male Player of the Year), Elijah Humble (Most Improved Player and Male Try-Scorer), Al Wilkinson  and Greg Brumby (Clubperson of the Year), Shania Puglisi and Tim Scarcella (Citizenship Award), Blake Mackey (Achievement Award), Thomas Woodward (Rookie of the Year), Tarje Whitford (Male Pointscorer), Alivia Heath (Female Pointscorer) and Keele Browne (Female Try-Scorer).

In terms of team awards, the four first grade prizes went to Lepani Waqa (Best and Fairest), Blake Mackey (runner-up Best and Fairest), Hayden Naylor (Coach’s Award) and Wade Walker (Coach’s Award), while in reserve grade Dae Flentjar (Best and Fairest and Best Forward), Mitchell Rixon (Best Back) and Matthew Veitch (Coach’s Award) claimed awards.

In the under 18s, the male awards went to Oscar Fitzpatrick (Best and Fairest), Tarje Whitford (Best Back), Chris Baker (Most Improved) and Tim Scarcella (Coach’s Award), while in the female team, who reached the Illawarra grand final in their inaugural season, the prizes went to Abbey Montgomery (Most Valuable Player), Ally England (Player’s Player), Keele Browne (Best Back) and Georgie Fitzpatrick (Best Forward).

Finally, the women’s league tag awards were claimed by Meg Buchanan (Player’s Player), Cheyanne Hatch (Coach’s Award), Olivia Patterson (Most Consistent) and Alysha Adam (Most Improved).