The Lambert–Pearce Medal 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

VFL Women's VFL Women's (VFLW) is the major state-level women's Australian rules football league in Victoria. The league initially comprised the six premier division clubs and the top four division 1 clubs from the now-defunct Victorian Women's Football Le ...

(VFLW) 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 VFLW. 's

Georgia Nanscawen Georgia Nanscawen ( ; born 27 May 1992) is an Australian rules footballer and former field hockey player Field hockey career Georgia Nanscawen is a former Field Hockey Player for Australia. She retired in 2018 with 205 caps and scored 37 goal ...

is the most recent winner of the award, winning consecutive awards in 2021 and 2022.

History

The VFL Women's best and fairest award was named the Lambert–Pearce Medal in 2018 to honour

Victorian Women's Football League The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, across seven divisions and a total of ove ...

(VWFL) founding committee member and former president Helen Lambert (the namesake of the Helen Lambert Medal, the VWFL best and fairest award) and

Daisy Pearce Daisy Pearce (born 27 May 1988) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition. Often regarded as the face of women's Australian rules football, Pearce has served as Melbourne c ...

, who won the inaugural VFL Women's best and fairest award in 2016 after having previously won six Helen Lambert Medals in the VWFL.

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 similar awards such as the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(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 ...

or the

AFL Women's best and fairest The AFL Women's best and fairest is awarded to the best and fairest player in the AFL Women's (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 awar ...

, 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 VFL 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 VFL Tribunal; * she is found guilty by the VFL 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.

Winners

Records

Winners who also won a premiership in the same season *

(, 2016) *

Katie Brennan Katie Brennan (born 2 October 1992) is an Australian rules footballer with and captain of the Richmond Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She previously played for and captained the Western Bulldogs from 2017 to 2019. Brennan was signed ...

(, 2017) *

(, 2022) Winners who also led the league goalkicking in the same season *

(, 2017)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lambert-Pearce Medal

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 ...

Awards established in 2016 Women's Australian rules football awards 2016 establishments in Australia Sportsmanship trophies and awards