Glenelg Football Club announces the Cass Hartley Best Team Player Award

The Glenelg Football Club is proud to announce the naming of the Women’s Best Team Player Award in honour of Cass Hartley.

The decision was unanimous between Board members, football staff and the Women’s leadership group, especially in light of Cass’ recent retirement.

Cass, who found out at the 2020 GFC Women’s Club Champion Awards Night, was certainly emotional over the news.

“At first I was shocked, then I got a bit emotional. Then standing back and seeing Ellie get the award I felt proud, so yea it was a whole range of emotions,” she said.

“I’m very proud about it. It’s definitely something I’ll look back on, especially in the years to come when you see some of the players comes through and actually get awarded something with my name on it. It’s very humbling.”

2020 Cass Hartley Best Team Player recipient Ellie Kellock was thrilled to receive the award.

“This is such an honour. Knowing it was named after [Cass] means nothing more than to be awarded it. Everyone should be very proud,” she said.

Cass embodies everything it means to be a great footballer – skill, knowledge, leadership, commitment, on-field determination and a team-first attitude.

She has been a trailblazer for women’s footy and made huge contributions to the Glenelg Football Club over the past four years.

Cass was the inaugural Women’s captain in 2017, before continuing her captaincy into 2018 and 2019. Very fittingly, she was also named Best Team Player from 2017 – 2019, sharing the award with Ellie Kellock in 2018.

Leading by example, she guided the women to their first finals’ showing in 2019. More importantly, she has influenced the careers of many Tiger players, and helped the team to grow and flourish.

Her inspiring career will certainly go down in Tiger history, and we wish Cass all the best in her future endeavours.