The Sandover Medal is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

award, given annually since 1921 to the

fairest and best 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

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

. The award was donated by

Alfred Sandover Alfred Sandover M.B.E. (24 November 1866 – 4 May 1958), was a British-Australian hardware merchant and philanthropist born in Plymouth, England, the youngest of five children. Graduating from North Adelaide Grammar School in 1881, he came to Pe ...

M.B.E., a prominent Perth hardware merchant and benefactor.

Voting system

After each match, the three field umpires (those umpires who control the flow of the game) confer and award a 3, 2 and 1 point vote to the players they regard as the best, second best, and third best in the match respectively. Voting wasn't always done this way. From 1985-2018, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point votes were given, from 1930–1984, 3, 2 and 1 point votes were given, and prior to 1930 there was only one vote per game. Just like similar "fairest and best" awards, for example the Brownlow and Magarey Medals, if a player is suspended for a reportable offence throughout the season then they become ineligible to win the award. This in effect is where the "fairest" element of the award comes in. On the awards night, the votes over the home and away (regular) season are tallied and the eligible player with the highest number of votes is awarded the medal. In the past, ties were decided on a countback system, but after a three-way tie in the 1984 count, the WAFC decided to scrap countback system and award multiple medals to joint winners. Prior to 1930 when only 1 vote per game was given, and hence a countback was not possible, the WAFL president would cast a deciding vote to decide the winner. Players that had missed out on a medal due to the countback system were awarded them retrospectively in 1997.

Sandover Medal winners

** Awarded retrospective Sandover Medal in 1997 Voting system changed from a single vote per game to 3-2-1 voting in 1930, then to 5-4-3-2-1 voting in 1985, and back to 3-2-1 voting in 2019 In 1987,

Derek Kickett Derek Thomas Kickett (born 6 October 1962) is a former Australian rules footballer. Kickett played with seven different VFL/AFL, WAFL and SANFL clubs during his career. Early career Derek is related to a number of other past and present high ...

() polled 46 votes, but was ineligible to win due to suspension. § Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, a shortened 10 game season was played

Multiple winners

The following players have won the Sandover Medal multiple times.

References

List of Sandover Medal winners
from the Official WAFL website

External links

{{Sandover Medal winners Awards established in 1921 West Australian Football League Australian rules football awards 1921 establishments in Australia