But he thought playing only seven of the 11 games in the reserves - the other four in the seniors - it might be too much to expect to actually claim the top individual award.
But in those seven games Dillon impressed the umpires enough to tally a total of 14 votes to share the medal with Tatura’s Ben Kennedy.
‘‘They asked five players to be present at the Zoom session but I thought I probably wouldn’t win it because I hadn’t played enough games,’’ said the hard-at-it, determined midfield on-baller.
Dillon returned to play with Kyabram last year after three seasons playing with the Pints Football Club in Darwin’s Division 1 competition, where he won the club’s best and fairest in his first season.
A star junior, Dillon lays claim to being one of the youngest Kyabram players to don a Bombers senior jumper.
‘‘I played my first game in the seniors when I was 15 under Dave Williams,’’ he said.
All up in his two stints at senior level with the club Dillon has chalked up 25 senior games.
He is also a member of the Kyabram Dillon family dynasty which has produced 11 players - 10 at senior level - who have donned the Kyabram jumper down the years, including the former Melbourne star and dual state representative Ross Dillon.
Other Dillons to have played senior football with the club are Lindsay Dillon, the late Brian Dillon, and his two sons Les and Mark.
Apart from Sean, Mark’s other two sons, Josh and Liam, are still playing with the club at senior level while Les’s two sons, Locky - who has been a senior player - and Michael have both donned the red and black jumper.
And Ross Dillon’s younger brother Doug also managed four senior games while still living in the town in the 1990s.
Sean also becomes the fifth Kyabram player to claim the Abikhair medal and the first since the club’s dual senior best and fairest winner Steve Kerwin won it in the 2000 season.
The Bombers also boast the most prolific winner of the award.
The late Max ‘Medals’ Murley won a record four Abikhair Medals - in 1969, 1971, 1972 and 1973 - while the first Kyabram player to claim the award was David Bates who shared the medal with Frank Foster, from Lemnos (now Shepparton Swans) in 1964.
The other two Kyabram players to win the medal were Peter Lear in 1996 and Jarrod Chapman in 1999.
Medals in the family - see Gus Underwood’s Sporting Snaps on page 19.
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