NLL Insider

Like we mentioned last week, before NLL Insider makes it’s official final selections on who this year’s Junior of the Year Award winners are gonna be, we wanted to give you, the fans, a chance to chime in and give us your opinion before the final picks are made.

So, after receiving an insane almost 3,500 individual player votes over the past seven days, you guys have three clear cut favorites and two categories that came down to just a few votes, which is crazy considering how many people checked in.

Anyways, after the jump, check out who “you” picked as the fan favorites for this year’s Junior of the Year Awards, and then next week, on August 26 just prior to the Edmonton Miners and Victoria Shamrocks round robin game at the Minto Cup in Calgary, we’ll be announcing our individual category winners, as well as our First and Second All-Canadian teams.

Here’s how you guys see next week’s award winners going down…

Player of the Year

Even though Alex Gajic put on a bit of heat over the weekend, Six Nation’s Cody Jamieson was hands down the fans fave for our first ever Player of the Year nod. Jamieson’s Arrows just bailed outta the playoffs, but the season he strung together for Regy Thorpe’s crew was one of the slickest individual showings the junior game has seen in recent years. It was definitely right up there with the season ballers like Shawn Evans, Garrett Billings, Daryl Veltman, Ilija Gajic and Kyle Wailes posted over the past few seasons and will no doubt go down in history as one of the best ever. But guess the same could be said of Gajic this year in Burnaby. Should be interesting to see how this one plays out in our books next week. Victoria’s Cayle Ratcliff finished third in the fan vote.

Defender of the Year

This one was a pretty hot one. Orangeville’s Jon Harnett and New West’s Curtis Manning have been battling back and forth the entire week, with the fan’s vote coming down to just a difference of 18 votes of the over 550 logged for the D-man category. Salmonbellies captain and SFU stud Manning edged out the silver and black’s Harnett as he finished up his final year of junior ball. Look for Manning to go high in next month’s NLL Entry Draft, even though Manning has a single year left playing at Simon Fraser. One pro team will hold down his rights for the next two years, but would only have him available for 2010.

Goaltender of the Year

After Nick Rose took an early lead in the category, Victoria’s Matt Flindell started getting a flood of votes over the weekend and into this past week. Flindell was actually the highest vote getter in the entire JOTY fan vote. The two keepers are both headed to the Minto and should not only meet up once during the round robin (August 25th) but again in the final, unless one of the two crashes and burns along the way. The two are front runners for NLL Insider’s Playoff Performer of the Yearas well, which will be announced the day after the Minto Cup is complete.

Rookie of the Year

Man, this vote was by far the closest between the three top dawgs in the group. Six Nay’s Randy Staats took a commanding lead over the first few days, Nanaimo’s Colton Clark blasted by him over the weekend and then BCJALL Rookie of the Year winner, Cody Bremner, went by both snipers to edge out his T-Men teammate Clark by just nine single votes. The rookie category had an unbelievable 924 votes cast by you guys, shattering every other category by a mile. All five guys in this category, which also included Whitby’s Mark Matthews and Mark Cockerton, are makin’ sure the junior game is in very good hands for the next four plus years. It’s scary to think those five ball players are only gonna get better.

Coach of the Year

The OLA mighta looked past him again this summer, but the fans definitely haven’t. Orangeville’s Matt Sawyer, long considered one of the best lacrosse minds in the junior loop, was the fan’s easy choice for Coach of the Year. Sawyer, who guided the Northmen to an OLA regular season crown, OLA post-season championship and obviously to this year’s Minto Cup, rocked the coaches vote and landed the largest lead of any category winner over the past week. Runner-up, Victoria’s Danny Green, trailed Sawyer by 19% of the vote. The two, like their keepers, will be going head-to-head over the next week at the Minto. Oddly, neither coach was named coach of the year by their provincial leagues.

Hit this link for a complete breakdown of each category and make sure to check back in with NLLInsider.com on Tuesday for our final selections for the Junior of the Year Awards, complete with individual winners and First and Second All-Canadian Teams.

The foremost boxla writer, Tutka is a former NLL scout and a longtime Inside Lacrosse contributor. Email him at paul.tutka@nllinsider.com.

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