By Jonty Ralphsmith
First year Cranbourne captain Zak Roscoe took out the Southern Football Netball League’s Ellis Medal as the best player in the Division 1 senior competition.
The hard working midfielder’s white-hot form propelling Cranbourne into the finals series was rewarded with a staggering 14 votes in the last five rounds of the home and away season.
He finished with 21 votes – three behind St Paul’s McKinnon’s Kye Beveridge who was ineligible due to suspension.
It’s an unbelievable achievement for player who bases his game on having a high fitness base, yet missed the entire preseason as he recovered from a meniscus injury.
Roscoe built into the season well, adding a more contested element to his game early in the year and giving the Eagles some presence inside 50 as they tried multiple forward dynamics following some key departures forward of the footy last season.
There were multiple layers to his form elevation midway through the year.
He returned to more of a primary midfield role, allowing him to play to his strengths.
The emphasis on the contested side of his game early in 2024 gave him a great balance for the latter part of the year.
Roscoe was training alongside fellow midfielder Jarryd Barker, whose listing with Casey in 2022-23 prevented them from previously training together in a meaningful capacity. The pair have always complemented each other on-field due to their contrasting skillsets, but their synergy and roles were clearer in 2024.
Backing up each week had given Roscoe full faith in his knee again.
And he was learning to release the internal pressure he had put on himself as a first year skipper.
“It was my best year at finding my own footy and my clearance work improved a little bit,” Roscoe said.
“Early on I didn’t want to overload the body because I knew if I went too hard too early I would probably break down in the back half of the year so it was more about timing the run and using the last five or six weeks as a stepping stone,” Roscoe said.
“As I got more confident in the body, I was able to bring the running side of my game back into it.
“Early on, contested work was more my focus, but I learned a lot about myself early in the year and then the rest of my strengths came back into it .
“The defensive part of my game has generally been my weakest.
“Getting a leadership role, I thought I had to improve that part because if I’m going to demand other people to be strong defensively, then I have to do it myself, so there was definitely a focus on staying in the contest and being able to support my teammates.”
Roscoe and Dylan Cavalot succeeded Brandon Osborne as skippers of Cranbourne this year, with Osborne leaving a blueprint for Roscoe after he grappled with the role amid the Eagles poor form early in the year.
“It wasn’t about what (Brandon) was saying to people, it was about him leading the way and getting his job done and hopefully it inspires everyone else to get their job done,” Roscoe explained.
“Earlier in the year I was too concerned about what everyone else was doing.
“Taking a back step, setting the tone and realising I couldn’t ask people to do things I wouldn’t do myself and if that meant going at the ball a little bit harder or getting more involved defensively than I would do it.”
The coveted award follows a top three finish last season and grand final best-on-ground for Roscoe in 2022.
Cranbourne’s Ellis Medal top three
Zak Roscoe – 21 votes
Ryan Jones – 7 votes
Jarryd Barker 6 votes
