The AFL Women's best and fairest is awarded to the

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

player in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football competition for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the l ...

(AFLW) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game. It is the most prestigious award for individual players in the AFLW. It is also widely acknowledged as the highest individual honour in

women's Australian rules football Women's Australian rules football (in areas where it is popular, known simply as women's football or women's footy or women's AFL), is the female-only form of Australian rules football, generally with some modification to the laws of the game. ...

Criteria

Voting procedure

To determine the ''best'' player, the three field umpires (not the goal umpires or boundary umpires) confer after each home-and-away match and award three votes, two votes and one vote to the players they regard as the best, second-best and third-best in the match, respectively. On the awards night, the votes from each match are tallied, and the player or players with the highest number of votes is awarded the trophy (subject to eligibility – see below). The current voting system, which is the same as that of the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL)'s

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

, has been used since the award's inception. If two or more eligible players score the equal highest number of votes, each wins a trophy.

Ineligibility

The ''fairest'' component of the trophy is achieved by making ineligible any player who is suspended by the AFL Tribunal during the home-and-away season. An ineligible player cannot win the award, regardless of the number of votes she has received. A player remains eligible for the award under the following circumstances: * she is suspended during the finals or pre-season; * she serves a suspension in the current season which carried on from, or was earned for an offence committed in, the previous season; * she receives any sort of club-imposed suspension which is not recognised by the AFL Tribunal; * she is found guilty by the AFL Tribunal of an offence which attracts only a financial penalty. Umpires cast their votes for each game independent of eligibility criteria of the players; ''i.e.'' umpires can cast votes for players who have already been suspended during that season if they perceive them to be amongst the best on the ground.

Award ceremony

The AFL Women's best and fairest is awarded during the W Awards, the official AFL Women's awards ceremony.

Winners

Records

Most medals by player * 2 –

Erin Phillips Erin Victoria Phillips (born 19 May 1985) is an Australian basketball player and former Australian rules football player. She played nine seasons in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for five different teams and is a two-time ...

Most medals by club * 3 – (2017, 2019, 2024) Most votes in a season * 23 –

Monique Conti Monique Conti (born 9 December 1999) is an Australian sportswoman who plays Australian rules football and basketball. Conti currently plays for the Richmond Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW), having previously played for the Western Bulld ...

(, 2023), Ebony Marinoff (, 2024) Youngest winner *

Madison Prespakis Madison Prespakis (born 2 November 2000) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Essendon Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She previously played for the Carlton Football Club from 2019 to season 6. A midfielder who won multipl ...

(, 2020) – 19 years, 179 days Oldest winner *

(, 2019) – 33 years, 317 days Winners who also won a premiership in same season *

(, 2017, 2019) * Emma Kearney (, 2018)

References

External links

AFL Women's best and fairest
at afl.com.au {{AFL Women's ! Awards established in 2017 2017 establishments in Australia