Western United vice-captain Josh Risdon has won the Club’s A-League Men Player of the Season award for the first time after an outstanding campaign.
Risdon won in a landslide, with the award given on the back of a weekly voting system by a panel of football department staff. Tongo Doumbia finished in second place, Connor Pain came in third and Lachie Wales and Dylan Pierias rounded out the top five.
The right-back started the season in outstanding form, scoring in Round 2 against Sydney FC and providing an assist for Lachie Wales’ goal against Macarthur FC in Round 3.
The solid beginning to the season and a consistent run of fitness enabled Risdon to kick on and continue to lead the way. His winning margin might well have been even bigger but for two matches that he missed due to suspension.
The ever-consistent Risdon has been a key player for United since its inaugural season and a vital part of successful Perth Glory and Western Sydney Wanderers sides prior to that.
Despite all of the success he has already accumulated in over 230 matches of Isuzu UTE A-League Men football, Risdon clearly still has plenty more to give with arguably the best campaign of his career.
With injuries and suspensions felling a number of his defensive counterparts, Risdon was a near constant in the side and played almost as much at left-back as he did in his natural position on the right-hand side.
In fact, some of Risdon’s best performances came from left-back when he was able to come inside on his right foot and join the midfield, with two of his assists coming from expert reverse crosses onto the heads of Aleksandar Prijovic and Noah Botic respectively.
United’s No.19 joins Ben Garuccio, Tomoki Imai and Alessandro Diamanti on the list of past winners of the award and will hope to have a similar impact on the side next year as it chases a return to the Isuzu UTE A-League Finals Series.
