PODIUM FINISH! Paradiso finishes third in Premier League MVP in first season as a Cat

Five-time Most Valuable Player Jess Paradiso has capped her debut Walkerville season with a podium finish in the league's highest individual honour.

Walkerville goal attack Jess Paradiso has finished third in the 2026 Hospital Research Foundation Group Premier League Most Valuable Player award.

She also shared the captaincy with Jess Ward, in her first season in navy and white, leading the Cats through their first year in the competition.

Paradiso's podium finish adds another chapter to one of the most decorated careers in the competition's history.

The former Adelaide Thunderbird has won the league's MVP five times, in 2013, 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025. She did it after returning to the game as a mother of three.

Her 2024 award was shared with Oakdale shooter Asha Thurlow. That season Paradiso was playing for South Adelaide, where she scored 397 goals in 17 games and drove the club to its first-ever Premier League grand final.

She went back-to-back in 2025, claiming the MVP outright after shooting 361 goals at 82 per cent accuracy. She was also named in the Westfield Team of the Year.

This year she brought that experience to Walkerville, and it showed.

From goal attack, Paradiso formed a dynamic combination with goal shooter Sam Simons. The pair seemed to know where each other would be before the ball did. Paradiso's no-look passes found Simons in the circle, and her feeds left her teammate with little more than a layup for a beautiful finish.

When Annelise Janssen stepped into goal shooter for the run home, Paradiso was the constant in the Cats' attack.

The numbers back it up. Paradiso played all 16 games of Walkerville's campaign, scoring 445 goals from 540 attempts at 82 per cent accuracy.

That's 84 more goals than her 2025 MVP season, at the same elite accuracy. She averaged close to 28 goals a match, and her season-best 38 came against Oakdale in Round 5.

Her partnership with Janssen was a feature of the finals. In the sudden-death semi-final against 2025 runners-up Garville, the pair had Walkerville surging late, and the Cats won 67–56. Paradiso chipped in 23 goals alongside Janssen's 44.