BEST and fairest medal counts are part and parcel of footy around our nation towards the end of each season nowadays.

And we have the time honoured Bendigo Football League Michelsen medal count coming up next month.

Yet in the early history of Aussie Rules footy throughout the 19th and into the early 20th centuries there were no annual league awards.

In 1924 the VFL, as the peak body in Victoria, instituted the Brownlow Medal --- or the Brownlow Trophy as it was first known. It wasn't all that long after World War 1.

The BFL followed suit in 1930 pre-dating other major leagues such as the Ovens and Murray and Ballarat (both 1933) and the Goulburn Valley (1934).

In Bendigo the award for the league's best and fairest was named the A.F. Wood Medal.

It had been named in tribute to a former BFL president. However, the voting system was in stark contrast to the 21st century style.

No 3-2-1 votes way back 84 years ago. Central umpires, and there was only one man in white at each game, would award a single vote per match.

Not surprisingly many times down the years there were multiple winners as outstanding players tied with each other in the count at season's end.

So the inevitable happened in the first season of the award. Five players tied on three votes apiece and without any other system to revert to all five received a framed certificate.
The Wood Medal was in vogue until 1939. Except for the inaugural year when two Sandhurst players and one from South Bendigo were among the winning quintet players from country clubs dominated the voting.

The five 1930 winners were: Bill Callaghan (Castlemaine), Mickey Crisp and Norm Le Brun (Sandhurst), Len Major (Rochester) and Bruce Jones (South Bendigo).

The six country club Wood Medal winners as the 1930s unfolded included Rochester's Alf Firmer (1931), Dave Fraser (1934) and Ern Major (1935), Maryborough's Stan Nicoll (1932), Castlemaine's Jimmy Davidson (1933) and Kyneton's Bill Spurling (1936).

FRED Wood had been born not far from Eaglehawk at Woodvale. He worked in the mines for decades and started playing footy for the Snob's Hill team in the local junior competition.

Eventually he found he enjoyed the off-field chores more fulfilling than actually playing. Wood became involved in the Eaglehawk Football Club and worked his way up to the presidency by 1924.

He held that spot until 1926. A year later he was installed as president of the BFL although his reign was a short one.
Wood had to resign the presidency in 1929 because of failing health and in 1930 the football world --- and the community at large --- mourned the passing of a staunch local man.
In honour of his service to football the overall best and fairest medal was struck in his honour.

NO MEDAL was awarded during the war years -– the BFL was in recess from 1942-44 --- and when footy returned in 1945 it was voted on to change the name of the award.

Club delegates at BFL level decided to re-name their award the Arthur Cook Medal, in recognition of another great servant of the sport. This time the medal honoured the name of a South Bendigo stalwart.

But the Cook Medal was in vogue for a very short period. By 1947 the T.R. Davies Medal came into being. It was struck in honour of Tom Davies, a man who had given great service to the Eaglehawk club.

He'd been BFL president from 1935 to the war years and even after footy resumed in 1945 with first Germany and, later, Japan surrendering the T.R. Davies medal was still in vogue until 1951.

Once again as the Fifties began it was voted on to change the medal's name. Unbelievably no name was put forward and although Golden Square's Jim Wilson won the fairest and best award in 1951 he received a trophy unadorned with a name.

THIS glitch inspired the football community to put matters right.

In April 1952 BFL delegates met and they decided to recognize the name of a man who had long been associated with the game: Councillor Jack Michelsen.

Cr Michelsen had served on the Bendigo City Council for 30 years, been mayor three times and had been a driving force in turning the Upper Reserve into a multi-purpose venue.
When newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth visited Bendigo in 1953 on her Royal tour the ground became known as the Queen Elizabeth Oval.

Serving as BFL president in 1924-25 and before that as secretary of the second tier Bendigo Football Association, Cr Michelsen was a mighty figure in local footy.

It was through his initiatives that ground admission charges were lowered and during his presidency in the mid Twenties he'd been a strong – and successful -- advocate for the entry of Rochester, Castlemaine and Echuca into the fold.

Sandhurst's Kevin Curran was the inaugural Michelsen Medal winner in 1952, but back in those days there was no glittering awards presentation evening or afternoon. And certainly no electronic screens dotted around a medal count venue.
No, the umpires votes were tallied and a report submitted to the Advertiser. The player was notified, of course, after the vote tally and the medal was presented on the ground before a BFL final --- usually the grand final.

I WELL remember Cr. Michelsen's son long-serving Advertiser editor and a mentor of mine, Cyril Michelsen, presenting the Medal back in the late Seventies and early Eighties.
The Michelsen medal wasn't a big deal back then, either. A few beers and some trays of pies and sausage rolls at the Bendigo Club was the go.

Such was the case in 1979 when Square's Eric Pascoe and Sandhurst's Peter Tyack tied as the count wound up.

The team captains, senior players and/or the coaches stood up the front where the tally boards were sited.
Little, dinky number cards had to be hung on minuscule pegs protruding from the boards. As the votes were read out the number cards inevitably spilled onto the floor and people's ability to add up was seriously questioned.

As far as I can recall, Cyril paid for the Michelsen Medal himself back in those days. The BFL didn't cough up.

And how do I know? Well, in 1984 when South's Marty Graham and Northern United's Garry Mountjoy tied on 21 votes each Cyril turned to me and muttered: "I'm going to have go out tomorrow and order another bloody medal. Again!"
Although by then I'm sure the new BFL board of management coughed up the cabbage.

Cyril Michelsen lived until he was 93. He played competitive bowls at the Woodbury Club well into his 80s and is a legendary figure in the Addy offices.

THE Reserves and under-18 awards are called the Alan McDonald and George Symons medals.
Since 1971 South Bendigo's famous coach and BFNL Hall of Famer Alan "The Fox" McDonald has appropriately been recognized although the Twos had been playing for a medal since 1952.

Stan Plowman of Kyneton had been the inaugural winner back in '52. For roughly two decades it was nameless, as was the case for the senior medal in 1951.

The votes in the under-18 competition are now cast for the George Symons Medal. George was for decades, a devoted servant of the Golden Square club.

Like the Reserves, from its inauguration in 1955 the under-18 fairest and best award had no name. It beame the Dick Beattie Medal from 1960-68 and then in 1969 the Symons Medal came into being.

Some famous names have taken home a Symons Medal down the decades. Rod Ashman the Carlton star small man won in 1971 while present day South co-coach Peter Tyack was the 1976 medallist when he was at Sandhurst. He later played for the Flat and South Bendigo and won a Michelsen in 1979.
Later on Square's Ricky Nixon, who was to play with Carlton, St. Kilda and Hawthorn was the 1980 Symons Medal winner.
And Nathan Brown of Western Bulldogs and Richmond fame tied in the 1994 poll with his Golden Square teammate, Sam Jacobs.

Richard's tips for the final home and away round, Round 18: Storm by 59 points, Sandhurst by 48, Kyneton by 11, Gisborne by 37 and Square by 35.
2014 season total: 71 (total possible, 85).

By Richard Jones