ST KILDA development coach and Sandringham senior coach Paul Hudson has been named the VFL's coach of the year.

The 45-year-old, who played for Hawthorn, Richmond and the Western Bulldogs, oversaw a successful home and away season in which the Zebras finished second on the ladder with 14 wins and four losses.

It was his first season as Sandringham's senior coach after taking over from academy manager Simon McPhee last October.

Hudson said he was honoured to receive the accolade but remained focused on bouncing back from a loss against Williamstown on the weekend.

"I'm obviously very humbled because there are so many quality coaches in the VFL," Hudson told SAINTS.com.au.

"Individual awards are nice but it won't change my focus from this week's semi final against Collingwood. We haven't been starting well recently so it's very important we come out hard against the Magpies.

"It’s nice to be acknowledged for the amount of the amount of work and effort the other coaches put in. We’re a coaching team. I am really appreciative of the players and the effort they put in. I’d like to thanks the players for the way they’ve gone about it with the alignment."



Meanwhile, former Saint Clinton Jones finished equal second in the JJ Liston Medal after polling three votes in the final round. He was tied with ex-teammate and current Williamstown forward Sam Dunell, Richmond midfielder Matt Thomas, and North Ballarat player Myles Sewell.

Saints pair Darren Minchington and Ahmed Saad also polled strongly, while Sandringham utility Mitch Brown was named at centre-half-forward in the team of the year, alongside Jones who was named in the centre.

JJ Liston Medal leaderboard:

Nick Rippon (North Ballarat) 15; Matt Thomas (Richmond) 14; Myles Sewell (North Ballarat) 14; Clint Jones (Sandringham) 14; Sam Dunell (Williamstown) 14; Ben Jolley (Williamstown) 13; Jonathan Simpkin (Box Hill Hawks) 13; Daniel Currie (Werribee) 11; Sam Iles (Box Hill Hawks) 11.

