Varying Ambitions
The latest season-closing dinner had Farmer Bunnies and Grilled International flaunting their league titles, but with minimal accompanying blandishments - understandable, given that it was mostly them getting back to where they were. And not even that actually, for International, who lost their Division Four qualifier.
The ceremony would be held in Brunei for once, and it would thus have Grilled International presenting their awards first, as hosts. There would be a new Player of the Season as the club chose Curaçao star
Remond Bergervoet, rather than fall back on the usual options of
Chua Jun Long or
Umut Koza.
Egidius van der Duin and
Snæbjörn Sigfússon had their supporters too, with
Redhuan bin Mohd Aleshahfezan garnering plenty of nominations from the local set.
Busy Bees Number Two Hj Tapa bin Hj Ahmad Timbang, touted as a potential national youth defender, would be a near-consensus pick for Young Player of the Season. Hard luck then for trainees such as Muhd bin Hj Zulkifli, Hj Tarip bin Hj Gillen and Wahit bin Redhuan, all of whom had excellent seasons, but just lacked that little extra.
Farmer Bunnies saw last season's winner
Arun Ponnusamy become one of their top contributors yet again, but in the end there was no taking it away from Iranian captain
Koushan Khatibi, whose free-kicks had been so vital to their cause.
Amirul Jufri Khairil,
Lee Yau Tong and
Gabriel Priebe were the other candidates, with Amirul probably coming closest.
On the youth side, last season's honouree Huang An Jun is reportedly seeking a way out of Fc Mazzarelli days after his transfer, but he would in any case be outshone by the all-rounded Tay Yi Ming. Striker Mak Wee Fu made a case for himself with his consistency up top, as did precocious 16 year-old playmaker Mok Li Leong in the middle, but Tay had done more to impress overall.
Grilled Birds would bring up the rear, and it would be
Chia Kwang Tse to earn his first POTS recognition at 27 years old, after a breakout season that saw him tie
Lim An Keng for seasonal top scorer, and
Brian Reddy for appearances made. Lim, Reddy and
Gandhik Chitre had received a number of votes too, but Chia was a fairly obvious choice, all considered.
The Young Player gong then went to the Chicken Wings' Cody Xiong, who was lauded as the best left winger they had come through the ranks in some years. Au Jun Chu, Ling Beng Soon and Kendell El Khateeb were in close contention, but none of them had quite reached their potential as Xiong had, according to the coaches.
International player-turned-boss
Sazwan bin Hj Muhd Salleh then summed it up best. "Tuck in, everyone - and then it's back to work!"
