FREMANTLE ruckman Aaron Sandilands has capped an outstanding season by winning his first Doig Medal as Fremantle's best and fairest player and ending a four-year domination of the award by captain Matthew Pavlich.

Sandilands finished on 132 votes, 20 clear of runner-up Pavlich (112), who has won the award every season since 2005 and five times in total. 

Chris Tarrant (89) cemented his transformation into an elite key defender finishing third, while Paul Duffield (75) rounded out the top four after his breakout season.

First-year midfielder Stephen Hill recorded an impressive top 10 finish, polling 62 votes to settle in seventh place.

Sandilands, who earned All-Australian honours for the second straight season, was presented with the award in the Burswood Grand Ballroom on Friday night. 

He said it was a massive honour and thanked first-year midfield coach Barry Mitchell and ruck coach Earl Spalding for helping elevate his ruck work further into the elite bracket this year.

"Those two guys I've learnt a lot off, but also the experience of getting a fair few games under my belt now – that's helped me become a better footballer," he said.

"I hope I keep improving year in, year out – once you stop improving your career comes to an end pretty quickly.

"I'm hoping to keep improving and I hope that we have success in the near future, because my football career's on the downward spiral now and there's probably not much of a window of opportunity."

After finishing runner-up in the 2008 Doig Medal, the 26-year-old polled votes in 16 out of the 20 games he played in 2009, his most impressive season since debuting in 2003.

In the absence of West Coast star Dean Cox, Sandilands this season emerged as the league’s dominant ruckman, amassing 659 hit-outs at an average of 32.9 per game. He also lifted his average disposals (17.4), clearances (five) and tackles (1.7) to career highs.

Pavlich, the club’s leading goalkicker this season, polled votes in 15 of the 19 games he played. This year was also the first season Pavlich has missed All-Australian selection since 2004.

Hill, Fremantle’s first round pick (No.3 overall) at the 2008 NAB AFL Draft, was the pick of the club's 11 debutants taking home the Beacon Award as best first-year player.

The 19-year-old won a NAB Rising Star nomination for his outstanding performance in the round six western derby and went on to be one of only seven Fremantle players, including first-year teammate Nick Suban, to play all 22 games.

In front of more than 1000 guests, life membership honours were bestowed upon outgoing president Rick Hart and defender Antoni Grover, who played his 150th game for the club against St Kilda in round four. He joins Troy Cook as only the second indigenous player at Fremantle to be awarded life membership.

Michael Johnson won the Best Clubman Award, while the Past Players and Officials’ Award went to Luke McPharlin.

Doig Medal top 10
1. Aaron Sandilands (132)
2. Matthew Pavlich (112)
3. Chris Tarrant (89)
4. Paul Duffield (75)
5. Paul Hasleby (68)
6. David Mundy (68)
7. Stephen Hill (62)
8. Greg Broughton (52)
9. Garrick Ibbotson (43)
10. Steven Dodd (35)