West Coast's Darren Glass was the cornerstone of a developing defence in 2009
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WEST Coast captain Darren Glass has won his second club champion award, confirming his status as one of the AFL's elite defenders and exemplary leaders.
Glass, 28, was presented with the medal at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on Friday night, finishing with 340 votes ahead of Shannon Hurn (329) and Mark LeCras (328).
After 10 seasons with West Coast, he now boasts a premiership medal, All-Australian selection (2006 and 2007) and a repeat effort of his 2007 best and fairest triumph.
It was an emotional night for a number of retiring Eagles, with Tyson Stenglein joining premiership teammates David Wirrpanda, Chad Fletcher and Adam Hunter in a surprise announcement.
Stenglein, 29, played 102 games for the Eagles after crossing from Adelaide at the end of 2004 but injury and form struggles limited him to 11 this season.
Hunter, whose career has been cut short by a debilitating shoulder injury, was awarded life membership of the club alongside Quinten Lynch.
Popular backman Beau Waters was named the Chris Mainwaring Medallist as the best clubman, while Chris Masten capped an impressive second season as rookie of the year.
But the night belonged to second-year captain Glass, who was rewarded for a consistent year that saw him play all 22 games and lead West Coast's young defence.
He said football had changed since he was last crowned club champion, and his role had also evolved, but there was still plenty of room for improvement next season.
"I want to get back into pre-season," he said. "I've got lots of things I can work on. I want to add to the offensive side of my game and just keep improving.
"There's no doubt this year we were better defensively as a team and I'm pretty confident we'll make improvements on that again.
"I felt like I was playing pretty good footy towards the end of the year, but like always there's room for improvement."
Glass becomes West Coast's fifth multiple club champion, joining four-time winners Ben Cousins and Glen Jakovich and dual victors Chris Judd and Guy McKenna.
Waters, sidelined by a serious elbow injury for the whole season, put his time off the field to good use as an ambassador for The Cancer Council.
The 23-year-old said it was a great honour to win the medal named in honour of Mainwaring, who passed away in 2007.
"We were blessed that Chris had such a huge impact on so many of us at the football club and he took me under his wing when I first got here, coming from Adelaide," Waters said.
"[It's] a tragic loss, but his memory will live on forever."
FINAL VOTES
1. Darren Glass 340 votes
2. Shannon Hurn 329 votes
3. Mark LeCras 328 votes
4. Quinten Lynch 296 votes
5. Matt Priddis 288 votes
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