Griffith's Grace Buchan became a two-time Julie McLean medallist when she claimed a four-vote win in Friday night's Riverina League count at The Wagga Rules Club.

Buchan shared the honour alongside Majella Day in 2024.

She surged home this year, polling in the last five rounds of the season to finish on 13 votes.

Buchan said it was an enormous honour to have won the Julie McLean Medal for a second time.

After having to sit out the majority of the 2025 campaign, Buchan sais it took her a little while to find her feet at the beginning of the season.

Having a knee injury last year threw her off slightly, both physically and mentally but she worked on a lot of rehabilitation and strength in the off-season to make sure she was match-ready for the first game.

In what was her third season being involved with the competition, Buchan said she has seen an enormous amount of growth in such a short space of time from her first season to the one just completed.

A huge advocate for the continued development of the local competition, Buchan said she'd love to see the season grow in duration soon, stating that she believed it was at a bit of a standstill right now. She said she would continue to advocate and fight for this.

Buchan opened her account with a best-on-ground nod in Griffith’s round four 30-point win over East Wagga-Kooringal and she followed that up with two votes in round five as the Swans narrowly went down to Collingullie-Wagga.

Two more best-on-ground nods followed across rounds six and seven as Griffith took strong wins over Coolamon and Narrandera.

She then finished with a two-vote effort in round eight, despite the Swans going down by 34 points to Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong.

Buchan finished with three best-on-ground performances and her win is made all the more remarkable given the fact that Griffith had both of their round one and three contests called off.

North Wagga’s Kahli Abbott and GGGM's Stephanie Kissane finished equal runner-up on nine votes, while North Wagga’s Charlee McPherson, Griffith's Jenna Richards, Narrandera’s Lucy Litchfield, Brookdale’s Philomena Grigg, and Collingullie-Wagga’s Sidonie Carroll all finished on eight votes in what was an extremely tight count.

Temora’s Chelsea Walker, Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes’ Mikaela Cole, and GGGM's Prue Walsh also polled strongly, with the trio all finishing on seven votes.

It was Abbott and Litchfield who shared the early lead on five votes after the first three rounds, ahead of Kissane on four.

Kissane then jumped to the lead on nine votes after round six, narrowly ahead of Buchan and Carroll, who were both on eight.

Representatives from 10 clubs featured in the Team of the Year, with Buchan named as captain, while Turvey Park’s Mikelli Garratt was vice-captain.

Temora’s Michael Gilchrist was selected as coach, while Charles Sturt University’s Kendra Tyack was assistant coach.

Brookdale (Philomena Grigg, Charlie Gibson, Angela Fisher), Temora (Zali Sinclair, Harriett Sinclair, Chelsea Walker), GGGM (Stephanie Kissane, Prue Walsh, Skye Hamblin), and Narrandera (Molly Darrington, Charlie Lamont, Lucy Litchfield) all had three representatives apiece in the Team of the Year.

Collingullie-Wagga’s Alex Maiden was crowned Rising Star while Brookdale’s Laura McDonnell was named Volunteer of the Year.