When the finals were introduced for the 1993-1994 season there was no trophy awarded for the team that had qualified first for the play offs. It took a number of years before a trophy was introduced in at the start of the 2012-2013 season.

The D G Sewell is named after New Zealand test representative David Sewell who lived in Oamaru for most of cricket career. He also took more than 200 first class wickets for Otago, and played 50 matches for North Otago at Senior Mens Level.