Uliando takes out Mid Gippsland best and fairest

Hill End midfielder Ambu Uliando has taken out Mid Gippsland’s best and fairest award by a huge margin, winning by eight votes after a short 11-round season.

While Hill End missed out on a finals series this year due to COVID restrictions, Uliando said it was still a great year of footy.

“I’d just like to say how happy I was with the season despite not getting to play a finals campaign. It was really good to finish on top, I guess is a credit coach Mike, the support from the club and awesome teammates,” Uliando said at the online ceremony.

Hill End lost only one game this season to Fish Creek by six points, and finished as minor premiers with Mirboo North close behind.

“We were pushing really hard to not give up on the season … we were one of the clubs trying to get a result so it was disappointing that we couldn’t,” he said.

But with eyes now focused on the year ahead, Uliando said next year’s goal is to bring home a flag with the Rovers.

“I’ve always played in teams where we just quite didn’t make finals or sort of been towards the bottom of the ladder so the past couple of years we’ve been towards the top of the table and one of the teams to beat so now I really, really want to win a flag,” he said.

As a kid, Uliando grew up playing basketball and only started playing football after finishing year 12.

“I felt like I was missing out so that sort of put me off basketball a little bit, and thought I’d go out and play some footy with mates and I enjoyed that more to be honest, so I had a bit of a switch over,” he said.

The Drouin local started playing for the Gulls at 18-years-old, but signed up for Hill End the year before making the 2019 Grand Final.

Now 29-years-old and with 10 seasons of football under his belt, it’s Uliando’s first league best and fairest medal.