A panel of 3 judges unanimously awarded Eagles’ young’n the highest honour in a Western Derby – the Dale Kickett medal.
From the bounce, the West Coast midfielder managed to get under the entire Flagmantle playing group’s skin and was involved in many incidents of certified derby biffo.
To be eligible for the Dale Kickett Medal one must not only get involved with most of the argy bargy on the day but also give up sufficient free kicks in the pursuit of the biff. As one judge said,
“You really just need to get into the spirit of Kickett who just went anyone who looked at him that game. An iconic individual performance”
We spoke to a judge who said that ultimately Reid getting the entire Flagmantle home game crowd to turn on him was really the deciding factor. Adding,
“That’s top tier derby villainy, it’s what the people want and it’s what we saw today. We were impressed with some of the feistiness coming from Brayshaw but it just had to go to the boy Reid today”
Other punters say the Dale Kickett medal doesn’t mean much these days given the standard of biff is so watered down.
It appears the art of the biff is an inevitable casualty of the modern game’s additional focus on player safety.
You get that on the big jobs.