Handover Ceremony
Friday night's annual dinner had two league trophies on display, with the Farmer Bunnies' repeat taming of II.3 finally boosting them into the S-League. This rested, however, on Grilled Birds being relegation, which fortunately for the Buns, had not been in question for some weeks already.
There were no hard feelings on
Hovaness Noubaryan's part, all considered. "I'll just say, good luck!" he quipped. "It's a tough place to be alright."
The food and wine flowed freely before the real business got underway, and there were loud cheers when it was announced that
Moey Xin Seng had finally won his first Player of the Season award with the Birds. Most had expected it to come before his 29th year, truth be told, but the man himself wasn't fazed. "Better late than never!"
It wasn't even that clear-cut a decision, and Noubaryan admitted that
Vikram Mudaliar had come very close for his burgeoning attacking prowess, while
Chan Ze Han was, well, Chan. Moey however made the final cut, thanks to some much-needed leadership chops throughout the season - even if it didn't save the team. "It was just time."
Neeraj Muthyala added. "The statistics might not show it, but he was the best of us."
There was a familiar face for the Buns, as
Kwek Yun Jie earned an unprecedented fourth Player of the Season honour. To this,
Dalibor Kostadinović could only shrug. "We didn't want to give it to him again, it was getting boring." the head coach joked. "But there was nothing for it. Nurlan, Tham and Mushtag were excellent, but Kwek simply hit it out of the park, anywhere he was asked to play."
As for Grilled International,
Fausto Perono's second scoring crown would coincide with his second POTS, to little dissent. "That's better than a goal a game."
Roar Olaisen reminded. "
Ragib Banović stayed great, and
Osertz Indurain gets underappreciated - I'm sorry - but there wasn't much of a choice, was there?"
Tellingly, all three youth award winners - Koh Ze Keong, Wong Chun Chin and Nasrul bin Hj Kefli - were not present, having left to further their careers in Europe. "That's how it is." Kostadinović said. "Too many talents rising from the ranks, it's getting tough to differentiate the best there."
He didn't have that problem with at least one up-and-comer, then again. "Watch out for Alex Duffy." the Buns gaffer carried on. "He may have developed early, but I don't think there are many sixteen year-olds comparable to him in Singapore."
