THE West Australian Football League will honour season 2012's fairest and best player when the prestigious Sandover Medal is presented in the Grand Ballroom at Crown Perth on Monday night, September 17.
The count will be broadcast live from 7pm on 990am Information Radio and also updated live on-line by www.thewest.com.au
The Sandover Medal, which has been awarded each season since 1921, will be presented this year by Ian Sandover, great grandson of the original donor of the medal, Mr Alfred Sandover.
The Reserves fairest and best Prendergast Medal, umpires’ Montgomery Medal , JJ Leonard Medal for Coach of the Year, Rodriguez Shield for the top club, Bernie Naylor Medal for the League’s leading goal kicker and The Sunday Times WA Football Volunteer of the Year Award will also be presented on the night.
The Sandover Medal winner will also attend an official ceremony at Patersons Stadium at 2pm on Tuesday, September 18, to lay a paving stone bearing his name in the Sandover Medal Walk along Haydn Bunton Drive.
PAST DECADE WINNERS
Year Player Votes
2011 Luke Blackwell (Claremont) 42
2010 Andrew Krakouer (Swan Districts) 44
2009 Ross Young (Perth) 45
2008 Hayden Ballantyne (Peel Thunder) 41
2007 Anthony Jones (Claremont) 29
2006 Matthew Priddis (Subiaco) 58
2005 Jaxon Crabb (Claremont) & 39
Toby McGrath (South Fremantle) 39
2004 Allistair Pickett (Subiaco) 42
2003 Shane Beros (Swan Districts) 39
2002 Allistair Pickett (Peel Thunder) 33
HISTORY
Before 1964, the count was broadcast on radio from league headquarters at Subiaco Oval – a service that started in the 1950s. Before that, winners were notified by a club delegate or read about their win in the next morning’s paper.
Various methods of voting have been used for the award with the present 5-4-3-2-1 system introduced in 1985 after three players could not be separated in the 1984 count. The count back system was dropped and in 1997 the WAFC decided to award retrospective medals to players who tied for the first place but were beaten on count back or president’s votes.
In the first voting of the medal, the umpires awarded one vote per game. The first Sandover Medal count resulted in a tie between Subiaco’s Tom Outridge and Perth’s Cyril Hoft. The league handed responsibility of declaration of the winner to the donors, the Sandover family, and four weeks later Outridge was declared the winner. The Hoft family was presented with a retrospective medal 85 years later.
When another tie occurred in 1929 between East Perth’s Billy Thomas and Subiaco’s John Leonard, the president of the league ruled in favour of Thomas because Leonard had won the medal three years earlier. In 1930, the system was changed to 3-2-1 voting and a count back system to eliminate further tied results.
However, that system didn’t quite work and produced seven occasions on which players tied for the medal win. In 1997 those players who lost on count back were awarded retrospective medals. One of the seven recipients of the retrospective medals was Swan Districts’ Bill Walker. This extra medal took his count to a record number of four Sandover medals.
