Harper Sercombe
Two Calder Cannons’ young talents have shared the club’s Robert Hyde medal for the boy’s team’s best and fairest.
Calder Cannons’ draft hopeful Mahmoud Taha has done his AFL chances no harm, sharing the award with underager Jayden Nguyen.
Taha and Nguyen are close mates around the club and are both Essendon next generation academy members, both said they were proud to share the award with one another.
“It felt like a sigh of relief that I’d won it and it was a pretty proud moment to see Jayden win it,” Taha said.
“I’m pretty stoked about it but I definitely wasn’t expecting the award… I look up to [Taha] as a leader… he’s taught me a lot of tricks and helped me a lot,” Nguyen said.
Cannons’ talent lead Sebastian Spagnuolo congratulated both boys on the award.
“As a hard working inside midfielder, Taha led the Cannons in many statistical categories in 2023,” Spagnuolo said.
“Although he missed some Cannons games due to his Vic Metro selection, his form was strong enough to be a joint winner of the Robert Hyde medal.
“As a bottom ager Jayden should feel extremely proud to be a joint winner of the Robert Hyde medal.
“Jayden is a very versatile player having played on the wing, in the midfield and also as a running defender with a great burst of speed.”
Taha flourished this season with a move into the midfield suiting his game and his ambitions nicely.
The 18-year-old averaged 27 disposals for the season, an increase of 15 from last season.
“I was pretty pleased with myself this year,” he said.
“Getting that time on the inside which is my predominant position, I’m pretty proud of and also to showcase my strengths on the field, my inside contested work to feed it out to the outside runners, I was happy to be able to showcase that.”
For Nguyen, he is hoping his move to the midfield will happen next season with the 17-year-old spending most of his time on the outside this year.
“Just to get my hands on the ball more and show my traits to recruiters and what I can do,” he said.
“It was an honour to be recognised, I feel like it’s put me in good stead and hopefully, it’s given me the confidence heading into next year as well to attack my drive to be my best.”
For Taha, it’s a busy time with the state combine last weekend, the AFL draft on November 20 all while completing year 12.
“I was pretty nervous going into the state combine because there’s a lot of eyes watching and a lot of expectations,” he said.
“But it was an unreal experience just to be there, I’m very grateful for it.
“I’m obviously pretty nervous for the draft, anything can happen between now and November 20.
“With exams and stuff like that, I’m just trying to get through the year.
“So just taking my mind off footy but still training and just whatever happens, happens.”
