Park finished with 30 votes, four ahead of Cobram Roar star Bill Puckett.

Albury United’s Caleb Martin, who was widely tipped as a smokey chance, was one vote further behind in third place.

Park, who arrived at the club in 2015, polled five votes in the final two rounds to pull ahead of Puckett, who led by one vote after round 20.

It’s a timely boost for the Savoys, who, despite appearing unlikely to have Park’s presence on the pitch on Sunday, are up and about heading into their fifth cup final in 10 years.

With the league’s top honour his own after just his second season in the competition, Park said hadn’t expected to poll as well as he had.

“I was thinking there might be a little bit of a chance that I’d be up there but I didn’t really think there’d be a chance that I was going to win it,” he said.

“The standard of this league has really surprised me, I didn’t know that there was a competition when I moved here last year.

“I’ve loved it.

“It’s great having proper competition up here, we come up against good players and good sides every week.” 

Park joins rare company as one of very few players to win both the Star Player award and rank as the league leading goal-scorer.

But with the Cup on the line against Albury City on Sunday, it was an easy decision as to which he’d prefer to get his hands on.

“I’m delighted to have won both,” he said.

“To be honest though there’s a more important award out there.

“I’d swap both for a Cup any day.

“That’s the one that we really want, it’s the one I want.

“It’s great to win the individual awards, but hopefully we can get the overall package this weekend.

“It’s been such a team effort from everyone this year, the boys have been great.

“Obviously I couldn’t have done it without them, I’d like to thank them.” 

Taking on a coaching role for the first time in his career, alongside co-coach Jayden Vescio, Park said the added responsibility had added another dimension to his career.

“It’s been a challenge, I’ve loved every minute of it, but it’s certainly been hard,” he said.

“Usually you can just rock up to training Tuesday and Thursday, play your games and that’s it.

“But it’s been a 24/7 job, I’m always thinking about it, always on the phone to Jayden going through every scenario.

"But I've loved it, and if we can get that win on the weekend it'll make it worth every bit of effort we put in.”

Twin City duo Mathew Hasler and Josh Zito polled well, as did Wangaratta’s Connor Heffernan, Boomers FC’s Andrew Grove and Pieter Noordewier, and Cobram’s Josh Dutton-Black.

Fellow Cup finalists Albury City were represented by David Woodall, who polled in ninth position.

In the reserve men, Albury United veteran Cade Webb won the Star Player award with 19 votes, ahead of Boomers’ Du Phan (17 votes) and United's Michael Christian (17).