West Australian captain Leigh Kitchin may be Victorian born, but he’s now part of Black Swan’s history

Leigh Kitchin’s birth certificate may say Victoria, but he couldn’t be more proud to wear the black and gold. The star midfielder etched his name into WA football history when he was awarded the Simpson Medal as the Black Swans’ best in their heartbreaking four-point loss to South Australia. Kitchin finished with 30 disposals, four clearances, five tackles, three score involvements and eight inside 50s to be the unanimous winner amongst the voting panel. Ultimately though, it was a bittersweet day for the 32-year-old with his team losing to South Australia for a third-consecutive time. “I’m Victorian and will always be a Victorian, but a big part of my life has been in WA now and in the WAFL,” Kitchin said. “It’s been so good to me, a lot of great opportunities playing in this competition and meant a lot of great people, so I’m really proud to play for this State, for this team and to try to get the wins for us. “Just playing for the State is the biggest part for me. Looking on it as a career winning premierships is awesome and then getting to captain your State, they’re probably the two biggest accolades of my career. “It’s nice to play a good game, but only if we were a little bit better it would’ve been a better feeling.” Kitchin said the group loved representing the State and believed it would not be the last time they wore the guernsey. “It’s something that’s special to be involved in,” he said. “Without there being any other State of origin footy at the higher level now, this is a chance to see Western Australia and South Australia go to battle. “I’ve had the word it’s alive and well, and hopefully we see it go along for a long time.” Kitchin said despite being down by 17 points at half-time, he never believed the game was slipping away. “The scoreboard didn’t look great for us, but the way we played that first quarter, I thought we controlled the game,” he said. “On the scoreboard, we didn’t see that, but we had lots of opportunities to score and we played a lot of that first quarter in our half. “In the second quarter they were great inside 50 and every set shot they had they pretty much capitalised on.” SIMPSON MEDAL VOTES Umpires 3 votes - L. Kitchin 2 votes - A. Schumacher 1 vote - C. Eardley Jacob Landsmeer (SPORTFM) 3 votes - L. Kitchin 2 votes - C. Eardley 1 vote - J. Turner WA Coaches 3 votes - L. Kitchin 2 votes - N. Pegoraro 1 vote - C. Harris Total votes 9 votes - L. Kitchin 3 votes - C. Eardley 2 votes - A. Schumacher, N Pegoraro 1 vote - J. Turner, C Harris