Jade Leven named joint winner of youth girls best and fairest prize for 2021

The Bathurst Bushrangers star shared the award with Dubbo Junior AFL Club's Molly Mayall.

Leven was a driving force behind the Bushrangers' unbeaten season and her club-level achievements were recognised midway through the year when she was named captain of the Central West's representative youth girls side.

"I was hoping that I could get it but I was surprised to win," Leven said of her award.

"I have a good year with achievements in footy. First up, I got selected in the WRAS [Western Region Academy of Sport] squad and then I was in the GWS Giants development squad. I was also named captain for the Central West AFL team.

"I was nominated for a WRAS award and now I've won this best and fairest award.

"I would love to be able to take my game further, maybe even to the professional level. We'll see how things go."

At the time of the season's cancellation due to COVID-19 Leven's Bushrangers were already through to the grand final and were awaiting the winner of the Bathurst Giants and Orange Tigers preliminary final.

"It was an amazing season. The girls played really well," Leven said.

"It was a bit upsetting that we didn't get to play in the grand final like we were hoping to. We really did have a great season."

Leven's Bushrangers youth girls coach Ciara Kearns said it's hard to find many other people in the competition who put as much time into skill development.

"It was so good to see a few of the girls' names popping up there but Jade's pushed through all season. She's been there over the past four seasons and with every year has gotten stronger and stronger," she said.

"It's great to see her rewarded for her efforts throughout the year. She has a lot of commitment, and is working so hard on her technique with the Giants and WRAS, and she shows a lot of drive to get better and better."

Kearns pointed to one moment in particular during the 2021 season where Leven's flexibility was on full display.

"She always brings a lot of fight and passion. There was one game where she was sitting at full forward because she was injured and really wanted to get into the game," she said.

"We were having a rough spot where we couldn't get possession so we brought her into the midfield and she made four tackles in about the space of a minute at 100 per cent effort the whole time. The team went on to dominate the rest of that game."

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