As Nat Fyfe sat down for a Brownlow Medal memorabilia signing session this week, the magnitude of his personal achievements in 2015 still hadn’t quite dawned on him.
The Fremantle champion doesn’t expect the fact that he is just the eighth player in history to win the AFL Players’ MVP and Brownlow Medal in the same year to hit him for a while.
“I’ve had a bit of time to think and reflect and respond to a few text messages, emails, and things like that. I’m starting to feel pretty good.” – Nat fyfe
Maybe not until he’s perched on a cliff top in Central America in a few weeks’ time taking it all in. Or surfing a secluded beach in Asia.
“It’s been a fruitful year (winning the MVP and Brownlow Medal) and that sort of stuff doesn’t sink in until you get some alone time in the middle of nowhere just to think about what you’ve achieved,” Fyfe told aflplayers.com.au.
“When it hits home it does feel pretty good.”
Fyfe last year won the MVP for the first time and made it back-to-back this year.
He went to the Brownlow a raging favourite, streaked to an early lead, and held off West Coast midfielder Matt Priddis, despite missing four games for the season due to injury.
The 24-year-old, who battled bravely through Fremantle’s preliminary final loss to Hawthorn with a broken leg, underwent surgery in Melbourne on Tuesday.
He spent two days in hospital recovering and responding to the many congratulatory messages from across the world.
“I’ve had a bit of time to think and reflect and respond to a few text messages, emails, and things like that. I’m starting to feel pretty good,” he said.
“There’s just been people all over the world want to wish me well and congratulate me. It’s been fantastic.
“So often you go to these (events), or the last game of the season, and you walk away empty handed.
“So, like I said on the night, for us as a Fremantle footy community to walk away with something like that was pretty special.”