The key position player polled 19 votes in the Victorian Women’s Football League north-west division one award.

“It was a nice surprise. I came third in the club (best-and-fairest), we all thought Michelle (Barkla) would poll quite well,” Grant said.

Sunbury’s captain Natasha Hardy was the runaway winner with 28 votes.

“It was well-deserved, she’s a great midfielder,” said Grant, who is the Bendigo region’s Female Football Ambassador.

The Thunder dominated in 2013 and marked an undefeated season by winning back-to-back flags.

The three-year-old club has never won a league best-and-fairest, partly due to its galaxy of stars taking votes from each other..

“That’s kind of what we thought on the night, we thought we’d have to poll well in every game, but (we’d be) taking them off each other,” Grant said.

It was a similar story in the league goal-kicking.

La Trobe Uni’s Samantha Green booted 37 majors to win the award ahead of five Thunder players who kicked between 32 and 20 goals.

The Thunder was presented with the premiership flag and grand final match-ball at the awards night.

Grant, Cherie O’Neill and Jessica Blake were also presented with medallions for playing in the league’s Anzac Day game.

It was the last awards ceremony to be run by the VWFL, with AFL Victoria set to take over the league’s operations on November 1.

The competition will be restructured, with the Thunder eyeing a step up to the new elite division.

Grant said it’s an exciting time for the club and she believes the Thunder has the team to mix it at the highest level.

“There’s a lot of changes that have to happen even at our club. Just professionalism, pre-season training, match-day…everything has to step-up,” she said.

“If we keep our core group – we’re getting a few fantastic youth girls coming up…there’s a couple of girls from Shepparton and Echuca keen to come and play – we’ll be good.”