The former Seymour star polled 17 votes of the 40 polled.

Lavington mentor Simon Curtis and North Albury co-coach Chris Schmidt snared five apiece.

“He came on the recommendation of (star player) Mark Whiley and if Mark Whiley says he’ll be everything we want, you go with that straight away,” Pigeons’ coach Damian Sexton said.

Wheeler has been named in the Pigeons’ best in 10 of the 12 games.

And as a four-pointer, out of a maximum six under the player points system, it’s crucial Wheeler is one of their top-liners.

“The best thing about Harry Wheeler is he trains as hard as (Tyler) Bonat, (Xavier) Leslie and Whiley,” Sexton said.

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“His training ethic is as good as you see.

“From a coach’s point of view, you couldn’t ask for a better role model for the young group we’ve got.

“I said it only on Tuesday night, ‘boys, remember when the O and M senior side was going to play and we trained on the Wednesday night, instead of the Thursday as the league was using our ground’.

“Harry Wheeler trained that Wednesday night as hard as anyone.

“We trained Tuesday night just gone too and he had to drive to Melbourne yesterday (Wednesday) for Vic Country.

“I said to him after 20 minutes, ‘do you want to go in’?

“He said, ‘I’m not going in mate, I’m training’.”

Wheeler is not a goalkicking midfielder, a la Albury’s Morris medallist Chris Hyde, landing just the four goals.

He’s an accumulator of possessions, working his way into as many contests as possible.

Wheeler formed a lethal combination with Whiley, until the latter broke his hand in round eight, although that was his last game before an overseas holiday.

That one-two combination will go a long way to deciding the Pigeons’ fate.