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.[4]
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. Some Australian rules football journalists argued that Judd was lucky to escape any AFL Tribunal action following an incident involving Fremantle's Matthew Pavlich in round 13, where Judd elbowed Pavlich in the face.[5][6] Additionally, Judd served a three-match suspension at the start of the 2010 season, but because the incident for which he was suspended took place during the 2009 finals, this did not affect his eligibility.[7]
References
^Lovett, Michael (ed.). AFL Record Season Guide 2016. Docklands, Victoria: Slattery Media Group. p. 593.
