- Leigh Matthews Trophy
The Leigh Matthews Trophy is an annual award given by the
AFL Players Association to theMost Valuable Player in theAustralian Football League . It is named in honour ofLeigh Matthews , who won the first MVP award in 1982, when the league was still known as the Victorian Football League. The trophy was first awarded in 2002, and all previous VFLPA/AFLPA MVPs were retrospectively given the Matthews Trophy in 2005. It is awarded at a specialAFLPA Awards ceremony, televised byFox Footy Channel inAustralia , on the eve of the AFL Grand Final.The voting procedure for the award is:
*At the end of the regular season, each team votes for two players to be considered for election.
*Two weeks into the finals, the AFLPA sends a final ballot to all players throughout the league. Players cannot vote for their own teammates; in fact, the ballots sent to each team are redacted to remove that team's nominees. Each player has one vote for the award. The leading vote-getter receives the trophy.The award is roughly analogous to the
Brownlow Medal , the traditional "best and fairest" award in the league. However, "key-position" players have been more likely to win this award than the Brownlow Medal. For example,Wayne Carey , generally regarded as one of the league's all-time greats, never won the Brownlow, but won this honour twice. Also, a league disciplinary suspension has never automatically excluded a player from contention for the Matthews Trophy. In 1996,Corey McKernan finished tied in the Brownlow voting with that season's winnersJames Hird andMichael Voss , but was disqualified from the Brownlow because of a disciplinary suspension. However, McKernan won the AFLPA MVP award that season.Winners
External links
* [http://www.aflpa.com.au/index.cfm?menuid=D2AFC260-B104-394F-AF6E474E85FA37F7 Official overview of AFLPA awards]
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