Melbourne Victory stalwarts Kevin Muscat and Danny Allsopp have tied for the 2008/09 Victory Medal in front of over 600 guests at the club’s annual awards night at the Peninsula at Central Pier this evening.
Melbourne Victory stalwarts Kevin Muscat and Danny Allsopp have tied for the 2008/09 Victory Medal in front of over 600 guests at the club-s annual awards night at the Peninsula at Central Pier this evening.
In a repeat of the 2006/07 Victory Medal, Muscat and Allsopp were jointly crowned the club-s best and fairest players with 19 votes, two ahead of Archie Thompson and five ahead of Billy Celeski.
In the other awards, Rodrigo Vargas claimed the Players- Player of the Year for a second consecutive year, while Evan Berger was named Clubman of the Year and Allsopp also picked up his second Golden Boot.
Thompson and Celeski tied for the SEN Player of the Year, Mitchell Langerak was awarded The Age Young Player of the Year and Brittany Timko and Mathew Theodore received the Victory Women and Victory Youth Medals respectively.
Muscat played every minute of every match in 2008/09, scoring five goals and leading Melbourne Victory to the Hyundai A-League Premiers Plate, Champions Trophy and a spot in next year-s AFC Champions League.
Likewise, Allsopp also featured in all 24 matches of the season, scoring a personal best 13 Hyundai A-League goals – one more than he registered in the club-s successful 2006/07 season.
Melbourne Victory Coach Ernie Merrick paid tribute to the pair and also urged Muscat to play on next season.
“Last time we won the Premiers Plate and Champions Trophy, Kevin and Danny won the Victory Medal, so it-s a credit to both of them to mirror their fantastic season two form,” Merrick said.
“For us to do well we need players firing at both ends and these two players are vital.
“This season, we didn-t concede a goal in our last five games and if Danny wasn-t mistakenly sent off in the Grand Final I-m confident he would-ve scored.
“People tend to forget that Danny-s been our highest goal scorer over the past three home and away seasons.
“Over those years he-s matured as a person and a player and topped it off by scoring a personal best 13 goals this season.
“Kevin is the all-round package.
“He-s a fantastic player technically, who is hard, uncompromising and provides wonderful leadership on and off the pitch.
“He has helped create and foster the culture of success at Melbourne Victory and the respect for him is enormous.
“I just hope he-s up for another season.”
