Sydney Swans midfielder Josh Kennedy has moved into equal third place in the race for the AFL Coaches Association Champion Player of the Year award.

Voteless after the first two rounds, Kennedy has polled in the last six games to storm into third place with 34 votes, alongside Geelong captain Joel Selwood – although Selwood, leader Gary Ablett and fourth-placed Scott Pendlebury all have a game in hand.

Kennedy took home eight votes from Friday night’s 19-point win over Hawthorn after he picked 36 possessions – 23 which were contested – 10 clearances and laid 11 tackles.

It took a fair performance to overshadowed Kennedy’s, and Dan Hannebery’s 40 possessions and nine inside 50s certainly did that as he received the perfect allocation of ten votes from John Longmire and Alastair Clarkson, the second time this season he has pocketed all ten votes.

Lance Franklin and Luke Parker were the next best Swans players according to the coaches, with three votes  piece, while co-captains Kieren Jack (two) and Jarrad McVeigh (one) split the minor votes.

Shaun Burgoyne was the only Hawthorn player to poll, as he received three votes for his 28 touches which were important in getting the Hawks back into the contest in the third term.

Sydney Swans vs Hawthorn
10 Hannebery (Syd)
8 Kennedy (Syd)
3 Burgoyne (Haw)
3 Franklin (Syd)
3 Parker (Syd)
2 K. Jack (Syd)
1 McVeigh (Syd)

Round 8 Leaderboard
45 Gary Ablett (Gold Coast)
35 Robbie Gray (Port Adelaide)
34 Josh Kennedy (Sydney)
34 Joel Selwood (Geelong)
33 Scott Pendlebury (Collingwood)
31 Nathan Fyfe (Fremantle)
31 Nick Riewoldt (St Kilda)
29 Steve Johnson (Geelong)
27 Aaron Sandilands (Fremantle)
24 Matthew Priddis (West Coast)
23 Dayne Beams (Collingwood)
23 Travis Boak (Port Adelaide)
23 Trent Cotchin (Richmond)
23 Patrick Dangerfield (Adelaide)
23 Bryce Gibbs (Carlton)
23 Nathan Jones (Melbourne)

SWANS LEADERBOARD
34 Josh Kennedy (polled in 6 games)
21 Luke Parker (4)
20 Dan Hannebery (2)
13 Lance Franklin (3)
12 Ben McGlynn (4)
12 Jarrad McVeigh (3)
12 Kieren Jack (3)
6 Nick Malceski (2)
5 Dane Rampe (2)
5 Rhyce Shaw (2)
3 Nick Smith (1)