Best and Fairest? How does your club run it?

[Silent Bob]

After many a disappointing, pathetic and overall angry B&F medal counts, I was wondering how other clubs run their own count? Basically over the years ive been whitens to seeing the parents of players and friends of players, all of which have no idea about football be the main card holders. At the medal count itself ive seen players that have played just 10 min get votes along with players that have not even played in that particular game. And then there are the consistent, first 18 players, that ive seen finish even lower than 18th. Why does that happen? Because their parents are not figure heads at the club.

Is there a perfect way (or at least a better way) to run the B&F count??????

[smac]

Let the players vote on it, with them being unable to vote for themselves.

[S Demon]

Not sure about this year, but last year our coaching staff had 42 votes to allocate to 21 players each week with 4 votes being the maximum for each player. It seemed to work well and the top 5 in each grade were all deserving. It rewards consistency, but goes against a fringe player who might be playing A's and B's throughout the year.

A player's player would be a good idea. I reckon it would have to be separate to the B & F though

[Bradman]

St Pauls after having same sort of people (pissed supporters) doing the votes and picking mates changed to 3 cards (1 assistant coach- 1 team manager- 1 umpire) no bias that way
all was good for 3 years until one umpire decided to suggest we were doing it to get idea of medal votes and told the umpires boss. we got phone call saying we could no longer do it that way.

problem with players doing the votes is we had a "Players Player" award done by obviously players
in which some selfish ones picked players that couldnt threaten them come years end
we even had a bloke poll votes that never played that game

took what should be the best and most rewarding trophy for a player into a farce

[finn]

at uni there are two different styles depending on the grade played.
lower grades six best players are usually selected by the coach, asst coach or team manager with input from the club umpire. then bog gets 6 votes, 2nd best 5 through to 6th best getting 1. largest total wins.
higher grades - the bps are selected by coach, an official and players using the vote system above. these three lots of votes are then counted so one player can potentially receive 18 votes in a single game.
it seems to reward the most consistent but also means that if somebody has a spellbinding 10 games they can still be rewarded.

[Felch]

If there are 3 cards to be done, then the coach and team manager should both get one. The third card should be done by someone reliable aswell - runner or assistant coach. Definately not given to just anyone.

[Bradman]

If there are 3 cards to be done, then the coach and team manager should both get one. The third card should be done by someone reliable aswell - runner or assistant coach. Definately not given to just anyone.

what bout if coach also plays which alot of clubs have

[Felch]

If there are 3 cards to be done, then the coach and team manager should both get one. The third card should be done by someone reliable aswell - runner or assistant coach. Definately not given to just anyone.

what bout if coach also plays which alot of clubs have

Yeah, true. I didnt think of that. I suppose then the bench/assistant coach would get it. As long as the cards are given to unbias, responsible people, then it should be reasonably fair.

From my point of view, some players think that the awards given out on Saturday nights, and the best players in the Sunday Mail, are the same as the votes - not always the case.

[mypaddock]

our club best and fairest who won by a country mile only got one more vote in the association medal than our captain who didnt even finish in the top 10 in our b & f. i think this says more about the way umpires give votes. they give votes to players they know eg captains rather than the best players on the day. another great example of this was kevin hopper winning the association medal in Div 3 last yr and not fairing very well in his clubs b & f. so who has got it wrong? the clubs or the association/umpires?

[Bradman]

unless you see where votes were given you wont know
we have had blokes in b&f's get votes for games they never played in!

[Q.]

We've always given out two cards, each with 5/4/3/2/1 votes, to a club member. However, that member could be any number of drunk blokes. The problem I have with this system is most spectating members won't have much of an idea on the gameplan for the day, ie. they won't know if a bloke has shut down a gun full forward or if a player has been asked to play a tagging role that ended up contributing significantly to a win, and they simply tend to vote for familiarity/reputation or for blokes who had a few touches in the middle or a player who kicked two or three goals in the last quarter.

I think there is talk of changing our system so that those with official roles are casting votes.

[Felch]

unless you see where votes were given you wont know
we have had blokes in b&f's get votes for games they never played in!

So have we !!!

[Shirtfront]

We have a 5, 4, 3, 2 ,1 voting system from coach, assistant and nominated member on the day. Seems to work really well, plenty of times in the count you can see a different opinion on how someone played. We also have a players player voted each game, player nominates someone and votes counted every week. That is held in high regard almost more than the B & F.

[Q.]

For the Player's Player, what is the criteria for casting your vote. Simply who you thought was BOG on the day?

[NO-MERCY]

A- 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 card or 3, 2, 1,

what ever the number of best players on the day, only the coach, assistant & a team manager get the 3 cards.
If not team manager, someone else on the coaching panel, not supporters or parents.
Parents in particular are just " bias " as seen many times in my time, they also, like alot of supporters don't look for what a coach looks for in a player, they don't have to get 30 posessions to get best player, a backmen or fwd are not neccessarily going to get as much of the ball than a midfielder.
As for parents, your son has to contribute in some way to get a vote!
I've seen many times especially in the juniors, very good players, who at the end of the year should of won their B & F but didn't because of jealous parent voting.
Most times its not hard to judge who's best on ground.

[Pag]

One lot of voting done collaboratively by the coach, team manager and football director. Players are just ranked 6-1 for their performance. 6 being outstanding, 1 being very poor.

Think the difference between B&Fs and Association medals is the consistency. You can win an association medal playing 7 oustanding games and doing nothing for the rest of the year and still getting 21 votes, whereas in our system you'd get 42 when 55-60 is usually a winning number.

[Shirtfront]

For the Player's Player, what is the criteria for casting your vote. Simply who you thought was BOG on the day?

Can be for BOG or if the player did something speccy, or gutsy. Also if the player is given a job and dominates but doesn't really get the ball. Its good recognition form your team mates.

[Newman]

After many a disappointing, pathetic and overall angry B&F medal counts, I was wondering how other clubs run their own count? Basically over the years ive been whitens to seeing the parents of players and friends of players, all of which have no idea about football be the main card holders. At the medal count itself ive seen players that have played just 10 min get votes along with players that have not even played in that particular game. And then there are the consistent, first 18 players, that ive seen finish even lower than 18th. Why does that happen? Because their parents are not figure heads at the club.

Is there a perfect way (or at least a better way) to run the B&F count??????

Which club are you referring to BOB?

[S Demon]

our club best and fairest who won by a country mile only got one more vote in the association medal than our captain who didnt even finish in the top 10 in our b & f. i think this says more about the way umpires give votes. they give votes to players they know eg captains rather than the best players on the day. another great example of this was kevin hopper winning the association medal in Div 3 last yr and not fairing very well in his clubs b & f. so who has got it wrong? the clubs or the association/umpires?

D Pearce for us finished 3rd in the association and didn't finish in our top 5 last year. I won the B & F in 2006 and got 4 votes in the association!! It does make you wonder sometimes. Coaches and footy directors don't always hear what might or might not be said to umpires out on the field as well which can influence there voting...

[mighty hounds]

If there are 3 cards to be done, then the coach and team manager should both get one. The third card should be done by someone reliable aswell - runner or assistant coach. Definately not given to just anyone.

i agree with felch, the three that should get it are the coach, assistant coach,team manager or even the runner. these are the guys closest to the action and its unbias.
i think thats how we do it, coach, assistant coach and team manager i think