The Norm Smith Medal is the award given in the AFL Grand Final to the player adjudged by an independent panel of experts to have been the best player in the match.
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The Norm Smith Medal is named after former Melbourne player and coach, Norm Smith. It was named in his honour mostly due to his coaching feats in Grand Finals: he coached six Melbourne premiership sides.
As with most individual awards in team sports, the Norm Smith Medal is usually awarded to a player on the winning side. Only four players have won the award in losing sides: Maurice Rioli in 1982, Gary Ablett, Sr in 1989, Nathan Buckley in 2002 and Chris Judd in 2005. It is notable that Ablett, Buckley and Judd won their medals in very close Grand Finals. Rioli won his in the 1982 Grand Final, despite his team being convincingly beaten by Carlton.
Gary Ayres and Andrew McLeod are the only players to win the medal twice. In the 1997 and 1998 grand finals Mcleod won consecutive Norm Smith Medals, and to date remains the only man ever to achieve this feat. The first winner of the medal, Wayne Harmes, was Norm Smith's nephew.
The medal is voted for by a panel of five experts from the media, with one member designated as the chairman. The panel-members independently award 3-2-1 votes to the players they adjudge to be the best three players in the game. These votes are tallied, and the highest number of votes wins the medal.
There is no chance of a tie for the medal; if two players are tied for votes, the following countbacks will apply in order:
Italics - denotes winner from losing team of that Grand Final.
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