SWFL: Hayward Medal has joint winners for first time in 20 years in HBL’s Ty Anderson and AMR’s Jed Spence

The South West Football League’s highest individual honour has been shared between two players for the first time in two decades. Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault’s Ty Anderson and Augusta-Margaret River’s Jed Spence both ended the Hayward Medal count at Mantra Lighthouse Beach Resort on Friday night on 24 votes. The award last had multiple winners in 2005, when Bunbury’s Michael Sherry and Busselton’s Nathan Bradbury also both recorded 24 votes. Claiming a Hayward Medal for the second consecutive season has seen Anderson, who also won the coaches player of the year and media player of the year gongs, join an illustrious group consisting of only six other players in the league’s history. Since returning from WAFL side Peel Thunder to the Lions ahead of last season, he has polled 58 Hayward Medal votes across just 35 games. Spence, who moved to the South West from South Australia earlier this year, managed to claim the SWFL’s most prestigious award in his first season in the competition despite missing four games due to a broken thumb. He defied the injury to return for the Hawks’ final game of 2025 against Dunsborough in round 19 and poll the maximum of three votes to move to the top of the leaderboard alongside Anderson. Busselton’s Aidan Austen finished third in the count with 21 votes, with the top five rounded out by South Bunbury pair Mitch Bain (20 votes) and Jye Clark (19). The softly-spoken Anderson said his teammates deserved “a lot of credit” for the awards he claimed on the night. “I don’t really think about things too much, I just go out and play. I go on instinct,” he said. Spence said lifestyle reasons were the initial driving force behind his interstate move but he was stoked to discover the quality the SWFL had to offer. “This year is the most I’ve enjoyed my footy in a long time,” he said. “I’ve only been here six months but I feel like I’ve made so many really close connections with a lot of guys in the team and the coaches.” In what shaped as one of the most open counts in several years, Spence made the early running, already having 21 votes to his credit by the end of round 12. But his injury and the Hawks having a pair of byes in the final seven weeks of the season meant his only other votes came from his best-afield display against the Sharks. Anderson polled three votes against an AMR outfit missing Spence in round 15 to claim a share of the leaderboard’s top spot and grabbed another three against Donnybrook in round 18 to move clear, but could not secure a vote across his final two games which would have guaranteed him sole ownership of the medal.