Craig polled 1074 votes to edge out Albury's boom Zimbabwean import Innocent Kaia (1062) with the latter's captain Ross Dixon (1034) snaring a surprise third.

Kaia's runner-up effort was an enormous achievement given he missed the first seven matches.

After the 18-round home and away season, Craig finished eighth in batting with 519 runs at 39.92 and also snared 24 wickets with his right-arm off-spin.

"It's a good feeling to get that award and see some other blokes who have got it as well," he said.

"It's been a massive team effort this year and there's a lot of people (team-mates) who go unnoticed with the work they do."

Former Wodonga and Tallangatta all-rounder Steve Wood, North Albury's Greg Daniel and long-time representative player Andrew Lade are just some of the association's elite to snare the top award.

Twenty-five-year-old Craig has been tipped as a star of the competition since his teenage years, but has now blossomed.

"I'm thinking about the game more," he said.

"I used to be a young fellow who used to go out there and hit the ball as hard as I can, but now you've got to be a bit smarter and learn from your mistakes and try and make as least amount of mistakes as you can."

Former coach Bob Jackson has witnessed his development.

"If he needs to accelerate he can put his foot down, if it needs a holding pattern, he can do that as well and that's with both the bat and ball," he said.

ALSO IN SPORT:

A premiership captain at 22 in the grand final win over Lavington in 2016-17, Craig debuted for Victoria Country in January, claiming the national title.

Wodonga also snared the premiership in its 150^th year after the grand final was cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis.