Almanac Footy: Won A Brownlow Medal but not club Best and Fairest in the same year
Robert DiPierdomenico
Dipper wins the 1986 Brownlow but finishes 8th in the 1986 Hawks B & F, the lowest in history of any Brownlow winner.
Ayres didn’t poll a Brownlow vote in 1986
1986 Hawthorn B & F votes:
42 – Ayres
41 – Buckenara
35 – Platten
32 – Langford
26 – Loveridge
25 – Dunstall
25 – Wallace
23 – Tuck
23 – DiPierdomenico (1986 Brownlow Medalist)
22 – G.Dear
Footscray Best and Fairest’s and votes:
1985 B & F:
233 – Doug Hawkins
207 – Stephen Wallis
199 – Brian Royal
168 – Brad Hardie (1985 Brownlow Medalist)
1990 B & F:
132 – Peter Foster
127 – Tony McGuinness
126 – Terry Wallace
119 – Simon Atkins
115 – Greg Eppelstun
115 – Tony Liberatore (1990 Brownlow Medalist)
Tony Liberatore
1983 – 4th in Morrish Medal (VFL Under 19’s B & F) as a 17 year old for Nth Melb Under 19’s – 14 votes
1984 – Wins Morrish Medal (VFL Under 19’s B & F) playing for Nth Melb Under 19’s- 22 votes. 1984 Under 19’s Premiership player for Nth Melb alongside Peter German, Darren Crocker, Mick Gayfer & Lazor Vidovic.
1985 – Plays for Nth Melb in U19’s Grand Final loss to Richmond. Plays under Denis Pagan (Nth Melb Under 19’s coach) for 1983-85.
1986 – Crosses to Footscray. Plays 4 senior games and wins the Gardiner Medal (VFL Reserves B & F) with 22 votes.
1987 – Plays 12 senior games, the rest in the Footscray reserves.
1988 – Plays 1 senior game. Wins the Gardiner Medal (VFL Reserves B & F) with 19 votes. 1988 Reserves Premiership player for Footscray alongside Scott Wynd, Simon Atkins, Stephen Macpherson, Ron James, Stuart Wigney, Brian Cordy, Phil Cronan & Mark Athorn.
1989 – Plays 1 senior game. Footscray reserves captain. 3rd in the Gardiner Medal with 15 votes. Plays 18 senior games for Footscray over 4 years under coach Mick Malthouse. Malthouse is replaced by Wheeler in the 1989/1990 off season.
1990 – Left out of Footscray pre season night series squad. New coach Terry Wheeler plays him in Round 1. Libba wins Brownlow Medal 6 months later although he misses the last 3 games of the season. Finishes equal 5th in the 1990 Footscray B & F.
Two flags, three Grand Finals, three comp B & Fs and five top 4 finishes for 2 clubs over 7 seasons before he wins his Brownlow! Remarkable.
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This was fascinating. I guess the umpires and coaches do see the game quite differently. I may be corrected on this, but I don’t think Bernie Quinlan won any club Best and Fairest awards in his brilliant career. As an old Royboy, it still galls me that Dipper has Paul Roos’s 86 Brownlow – even more so now that he had seven Hawks ahead of him in their B&F!
The Brownlow upsets seem to be less common now..
Some good players seem to not win the umpires votes
(Geoff Raines in 1980, Wayne Carey, Craig Bradley). I was a boundary umpire and the field umpires have a hard task officiating and judging who had the most influence on the game. Generally, they get it right. Its like the Norm Smith Medal voting. (Very subjective). Maybe in club B & F’s the no-frills players eg the Cameron Lings, the David Teagues (Carlton B & F) garner more votes. Dipper was a good player in a great team. No doubt he was lucky, so were others. I remember a slightly inebriated Brad Hardie declaring that he had only attended the Brownlow for the free feed!
Players that won a Brownlow Medal but never a club B & F:
1981 Bernie Quinlan (best 2nd in 1979)
1982 Brian Wilson (best 2nd in 1987, 3rd in 1982)
1986 Robert DiPierdomenico (3rd in 1984)
Paul Roos was the favourite for the 1986 Brownlow Medal and finished 2nd with 16 votes behind Dipper and Diesel on 17.
Some Fitzroy fans still say that little Mark Dwyer ‘stole’ some votes away from Roos. Dwyer polled in 6 of his first 7 games (as a 21 year old) and finished with 10 votes.
Dwyer was awarded 3 votes in Round 18, 1986 with 4 kicks and 10 handballs. Roos was BOG in all of the papers with 28 touches and 4 marks but didn’t poll a vote in Fitzroy’s 9 point win over Richmond.
In Round 21, Fitzroy beat Essendon by 35pts with Dwyer getting 3 votes for his 21 touches to Roos 2 votes for 28 touches and 12 marks (BOG in all papers).
It is very easy to understand how a player can win a Brownlow but not his club’s best and fairest.
Brownlow Medal long-shots:
61-1 – Tony Liberatore (1990)
41-1 – Matt Priddis (2014)
41-1 – Brad Hardie (1985)
33-1 – Robert Dipierdomenico (1986)
33-1 – Brian Wilson (1982)
33-1 – Keith Greig (1973)
26-1 – Paul Kelly (1995)
21-1 – Graham Teasdale (1977)
17-1 – Gavin Wanganeen (1993)
15-1 – Kelvin Templeton (1980)
15-1 – Chris Judd (2010)
15-1 – Jason Akermanis (2001)
13-1 – Shane Woewodin (2000)
13-1 – Adam Cooney (2008)
11-1 – Jimmy Bartel (2007)
10-1 – Simon Black (2002
That lot would make a decent team but who would play Full Back Big Kev? Backman don’t traditionally poll votes.
I recall a Richmond halfback flanker in our glory years, Merv Keane was hugely valued by the Tigers but didnt feature in the 3,2 ,1 votes in his 200 game career..
Don’t want to upset the Rucking fraternity, but Ron Alexander ahead of the great Bernie Quinlan in ’81, you’ve got to be kidding me.
Thanks BigKev as a v experienced maggot I have always thought it’s ridiculous how a umpires award is valued so highly there are games coming off the ground I had no idea what so ever in that regard and in general especially the one vote.I value club b and fs and the player awards far higher personally
Fullback Fred Goldsmith won it, David Dench, Harvey Merrigan, Stephen Silvangi, Danny Southern, Darren Gaspar and Ben Graham all finished top 10 in the Brownlow.