Jimmy Bartel won by seven votes despite missing the final two games after having an appendectomy.[3]Geelong polled the most votes of all teams with 108 total votes, although Port Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane also had 16 players receive votes.[4]Chris Judd was the early leader, setting the record for polling votes in the most consecutive games with votes in the first eight games, before not receiving another vote for the remainder of the season.[5]
* The player was ineligible to win the medal due to suspension by the AFL Tribunal during the year.
Voting procedure
The three field umpires (those umpires who control the flow of the game, as opposed to goal or boundary umpires) confer after each 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. The votes are kept secret until the awards night, and they are read and tallied on the evening.[6]
Ineligible players
As the medal is awarded to the fairest and best player in the league, those who have been suspended during the season by the AFL Tribunal (or, who avoided suspension only because of a discount for a good record or an early guilty plea) are ineligible to win the award; however, they may still continue to poll votes. This caused some confusion, as with the points system in use, a player can be ineligible if they were found guilty, but due to points discounts from a previous good record or guilty plea, they were not actually suspended during the year. In the weeks before the count it was discovered that Brett Kirk was ineligible due to a guilty plea in round 8, but remained active in the betting markets for the remainder of the season.[7]
