Alamein’s 2026 award-winners

Alamein FC is proud to celebrate the players whose performances, contribution and character stood out across the 2026 season, with our annual awards presented across every team from U11 through to Seniors.

Our end-of-season awards recognise multiple kinds of achievement.

The “Best and Fairest” award honours players whose performances across the season set them apart on the pitch. The “Coaches’ Award” gives each coach the opportunity to recognise a player who has made an important contribution to her team.

And our “Club Awards” recognise something equally important to Alamein: the players who most closely embody our values of Passion, Integrity and Unity, through the way they train, compete, support their teammates and represent the Club.

Together, these awards reflect what we want football at Alamein to be about: striving for excellence, contributing to your team and being someone others want alongside them. We are enormously proud of every winner.

2026 Best & Fairest

Congratulations to our Best & Fairest award-winners:

U11: Samantha Fernihough
U12: Emily Pejic
U13: Matilda Roberts
U14: Sophie Stafford
U15: Isabel Pearson
U16: Lucy Cox-McBeath
U17: Elliana Meldrum
U20: Lola Martinico, Ella Kerrigan and Emilia Fode, tied on 15 votes
NPLW Seniors: Neve Duston and Estelle Bougias, tied on 24 votes

The Best & Fairest is one of the most significant individual honours a player can receive at her club, recognising the quality and consistency of her performances across an entire season.

The ties in both our U20 and Senior teams this year made for particularly memorable counts, with three U20 players sharing the honour and Neve Duston and Estelle Bougias finishing level in the NPLW.

Player Milestones

The evening also recognised six Senior players who reached significant Alamein milestones during the 2026 season. Chinatsu Shidara, Priya Archdeacon, Neve Duston, Matilda Lohrey and Harriet Lohrey each played their 50th NPLW game for Alamein, while Emma Runalls reached an outstanding 100 NPLW games for the Club.

Reaching these milestones represents seasons of training, competition and commitment to Alamein, and we were proud to recognise each player and the contribution they have made to the Club. Emma’s 100-game milestone is a particularly significant achievement, marking a substantial chapter in Alamein’s still relatively young history.

Coaches’ Awards

Our coaches see more than what happens on match day. They see the work at training, the response to setbacks, the willingness to learn, the contribution to the group and the countless small moments that help make a team better.

Congratulations to our 2026 Coaches’ Award recipients:

U11: Emilia Ong Seng
U12: Maddie Stanford
U13: Jess Gorton
U14: Ariella Hackwood
U15: Sophia Shirley
U16: Layla Gupta
U17: Mylie Fishley
U20: Millie Faichney
NPLW Seniors: Priya Archdeacon

Being recognised by the person who has coached and watched your development throughout the season is a special achievement, and each of these awards is thoroughly deserved.

Club Awards

Football performance matters enormously at Alamein. So does the way we go about it.

Our Club Awards recognise players who have demonstrated the values we want to see throughout Alamein: Passion, Integrity and Unity. They are players who contribute positively to their team and the wider Club, and whose actions help create the environment in which their teammates can thrive.

Our 2026 Club Award recipients are:

U11: Vera Smith
U12: Sophie Evans
U13: Aria Nikolouzakis
U14: Delilah Conterno
U15: Zoe Evans
U16: Ziv Segev
U17: Ruby Mealing
U20: Ella Kerrigan
NPLW Seniors: Neve Duston

These awards matter because the culture of a football club isn't something written on a wall. It is created every week by the people within it and by the standards they set for themselves and one another.

Stamatopoulos Shield: Ally Nedelkovski

At a whole-of-club level, the 2026 Stamatopoulos Shield was awarded to Ally Nedelkovski, recognising a player who exemplifies Alamein’s values of Passion, Unity and Integrity.

And in Ally, those values are demonstrated in very tangible ways.

Her Passion is hard to miss. One of the loudest and most energetic players at the Club, Ally has an ability to rally her teammates at training and on game day. She is also a dedicated student of football, eager to understand new problems within the game and work through solutions.

Her sense of Unity shows in the way she brings others into the game. In difficult moments, she communicates calmly and quickly to help align her team. And when Alamein scores, Ally is just as likely to seek out the defender whose tackle started the play or the midfielder whose pass created the opportunity as she is to celebrate the goalscorer.

Her Integrity is evident in the standards she sets for herself. She remains thoughtful about her decisions even when frustrated, and is mindful of the role she plays within her team. Her approach to improvement is similarly consistent: she arrives at analysis prepared, notebook and clips ready, determined to learn from what has happened on the pitch.

These aren't necessarily the moments that appear on a scoresheet. But they are the behaviours that make a team stronger.

The Stamatopoulos Shield recognises someone who represents what Alamein wants its players to bring to their football and to one another. Congratulations, Ally, on a very special and thoroughly deserved honour.

Congratulations to our winners

To every player recognised this year, congratulations. Individual awards are something to be proud of, but none is achieved in isolation. They are built across a season of training sessions, match days, teammates, coaches, families and the many people who give their time to make football possible.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our 2026 season, and congratulations again to all of our award winners. We are very proud to have you representing Alamein FC.