Horn, the Hoppers’ 2009 best and fairest winner, left Bunton Park to become an assistant coach with Palm Beach-Currumbin at the start of the year.

But Horn’s victory on Monday night also had a touch of Ovens and Murray-tinged drama to it.

Former Lavington player Luke Brauer, now playing at Noosa, polled the same amount of votes as Horn but was ineligible for the award after getting suspended in the last round of the home-and-away season.

Horn said Brauer had already shrugged off his disappointment.

“I speak to Luke a fair bit and I think he was a little bit disappointed but his side is actually in a preliminary final this weekend so he’s more worried about that,” Horn said yesterday.

“It was certainly nice to win it.

“You go along to those things expecting a good night but nothing else, so it was a nice surprise.”

Horn, whose team was knocked out of the final series at the weekend, said he was looking forward to another season with Palm Beach-Currumbin.

“I haven’t thought much about it but I’m really enjoying it up here so at this stage I’m thinking I’ll stick around another year,” he said.

Palm Beach-Currumbin president Glenn Spencer said Horn had quickly won many fans in Queensland.

“He’s a great player,” Spencer said.

“Brad had a really top season; he made the representative side and played really well in that team as well.

“We knew what we were getting in for because he’d won a best and fairest with North Albury, so he’s lived up to expectations, that’s for sure.”

Horn was one of several top O and M players to head north to the burgeoning AFLQ competition last year, including Sam Carpenter, Matt Shir and Tyson Hartwig.

Spencer said Palm Beach-Currumbin would welcome more O and M players with open arms.

“We’re always eager to look at players from the Ovens and Murray ... I’m well aware how good the standard of footy is down there,” Spencer said.

“We’ve only just finished our season so we haven’t looked too far past last weekend at this stage.

“But we had a pretty good year and are pretty happy with our list, so we’ll probably just be looking to top up.”