The 1949 Brownlow Medal was the 22nd year the award was presented to the player adjudged the fairest and best player during the Victorian Football League (VFL) home and away season.

Colin Austen Colin Edward 'Col' Austen (2 December 1920 – 3 October 1995) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Austen made his senior VFL debut f ...

of the Hawthorn Football Club and

Ron Clegg Ron "Smokey" Clegg (17 November 192723 August 1990) was an Australian rules footballer in the (then) Victorian Football League. Clegg was recruited from the South Melbourne Under 19's after winning the 1944 Melbourne Boys Football League's be ...

of the South Melbourne Football Club both won the medal by polling twenty-three votes during the

1949 VFL season The 1949 VFL season was the 53rd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 16 April until 24 September, and comprised a ...

. Under the tie-breaker rules in place in 1949, Clegg was originally the outright winner: he and Austen were tied on 23 votes, but Wright polled six 3-vote games to Austen's five. In 1980, the League removed the tie-break from the rules and allowed for multiple tied winners in the same year; and in 1989 it retrospectively removed the tie-breaker from all previous counts, elevating Austen to joint winner of the 1949 medal.

Leading votegetters

References

1949 in Australian rules football

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

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