Birthday celebrations rolled into premiership celebrations for Lachie Straney on the weekend.
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It was a big couple of days for the Mornington quick as he savoured milestone moments on and off the pitch.
After turning 18 on Friday, he then on Saturday helped them win the JVJ McAdam Cup for the first time in 12 years before being awarded the Neville Gardner Trophy as the Cricketer of the Year.
Doing his best work with the ball, Straney also scooped the bowling aggregate and average awards after claiming 23 wickets at 7.48.
It was his best season haul and reflected what has been, in his own assessment, his best season since he started playing first grade regularly.
Originally with Kookaburras he moved to Mornington two seasons ago and has become a key prong in their attack. He was consistently among the wickets for them and more often than not finished with multiple wickets.
"It means the world to me," he said of the player of the year win.
"There's heaps of great players in this comp."
But he outshone them all.
Alternating between opening the bowling and coming on at first change, he credited his success to his team-mates and their support, and the confidence that has instilled in him.
This season was, he said, the most confident he's probably felt.
He also got a bit quicker, or so his team-mates reckon anyway.
"That probably comes with the confidence as well," he said.
Fresh from taking 6-24 in the semi-final, he was on Saturday pretty happy getting the ball first with the wicket playing "in the bowlers favour to start with".
"There was a bit of stuff in the wicket for the bowlers today, which sort of helped us," Straney said.
After Rhyce Kliendienst and player of the grand final Nick Miller had worked their magic, he (1-25) and Richard Avendano (3-6) came on and wrapped up the Albion innings.
Batting down the order, he then got to sit back and enjoy the run chase. Straney said he always felt pretty comfortable they would get there.
"I was pretty confident with the boys batting," he said.
"They've worked hard all year, it was good to see them do it in the game that matters as well."
In other awards, there was a special moment for mother and daughter Sally and Mackenzie Keeler, being named joint winners of the Representative Player of the Year.
Andy Mack was meanwhile the highest runscorer for the season and Marcus Hayne the most consistent.
Andrew Osmond won the Allrounder of the Year and Andrew Johns the wicketkeeping award while Jacob Price topped the catch count.
