Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Thursday 5 September 1940, page 12


Football

MATTHEWS AND

FOTHERGILL

Tie For Medal

Herb Matthews, South Melbourne

centre player, who won "The Argus" cup, and Des Fothergill, Collingwood rover,

tied for the Brownlow medal, the highest award of the Victorian Football League, for the best and fairest player during

the season.

When the votes by the central umpires in each game were counted by the per- mit committee of the League last night, It was found that Matthews and Fother- gill had each been allotted 32 votes. Members of the committee were in a dilemma concerning the position, which had not occurred since the medal was first awarded in 1924. In 1930 there was

a tie between S. Judkins (Richmond) and H. Collier (Collingwood), but the medal was awarded to Judkins on the number of games played.

H. MATTHEWS

D. FOTHERGILL

This season both players had complied with conditions, and neither had been disqualified, which would have precluded them from the award. Mr. L. McBrien, League secretary, said that the rules pro-vided that in the case of an equal num-ber of votes being recorded the player who received the highest number of first preferences should be declared the win-ner, and if they were still equal second and third preferences were to be taken into account. This, however, did not solve the difficulty of the committee, as both Matthews and Fothergill had each received seven first preference votes, four seconds, and three thirds.

Mr. I. Gibson (chairman) said that only one Brownlow medal could be awarded.

On the motion of Messrs. H. Clover (Carlton) and S. Hull (Footscray) It wns resolved to report the result of the voting to the full meeting of the League to-morrow night for a final decision.

Several delegates suggested that it be a recommendation that a medal be awarded to each player.

R. Reynolds, Essendon captain and

coach, a triple Brownlow medal winner, received only five votes.

Votes recorded for the various players

were:—

H. MATTHEWS (Sth Melb) .. .. .. 32 D. FOTHERGILL (Collingwood) .. 32 H. TORNEY (Essendon) .. .. .. .. 24 N. WARE (Footscray) .. .. .. .. .. 20

H. Hickey (Footscray), 15; G. Smeaton (Rich-mond), 14; J. Dyer (Richmond), B Spinks (Haw-

thorn), G. Dougherty (Geelong), 12; R. Baggott (Melbourne), W. Buttsworth (Essendon),11; J. Graham (Sth. Melb.), J. Barker (Hawthorn) , 10.

NINE VOTES.—J. Park (Carlton), L. Smith (Fitzroy), F. Hughson (Fitzroy), A. Killigrew (St. Kilda), F. Stubbs (North Melbourne), J. Clarey (South Melbourne).

EIGHT VOTES.—J. Kelly (St. Kilda), A. Olliver (Footscray).

SEVEN VOTES.—J. Mooring (Carlton), J. Adam-son (North Melbourne).

SIX VOTES.—B. Calverley (Fitzroy), C. Curtin (Fitzroy), K. Stackpole (Fitzroy), A. Everett (Gee-long), J. Butcher (Geelong), W. Lock (Melbourne), E. Coward (Essendon), D. Calverley (Fitzroy), J. Blackman (Hawthorn), S. Murray (North Melbourne), W. Findlay (North Melbourne).

FIVE VOTES.—C. Crisp (Carlton), J. Carmody (Hawthorn), A. Naismith (Hawthorn), J. Crane (Richmond), R. Bawden (Richmond), R. Rey-nolds (Essendon), F. Roberts (Melbourne), J. Mueller (Melbourne), S. Dyer (North Melbourne).

One hundred and forty nine players shared in the votes which were distributed among the clubs as follow:—Fitzroy, 65; Footscray, 61; Essen- don, 60; South Melbourne and Hawthorn, each

55; Richmond, 54; Carlton, 52; Collingwood and Melbourne, each 51; North Melbourne, 47; Geelong, 45; St. Kilda, 42.

The number of players in each club who shared in the voting were—Carlton, 17; Melbourne and St. Kilda, each 16; Fitzroy, 14; Hawthorn, 13; Richmond and North Melbourne each 12; Foot-scray, Essendon and Geelong, each 11; Colling-wood, 10; and South Melbourne, 8.

Previous winners of the award were:—1924, E. G. Greeves (Geelong); 1925, Colin Watson (St. Kilda); 1926, I. Warne-Smith (Melbourne); 1927, S. Coventry (Collingwood); 1928, I. Warne-Smith (Melbourne); 1929, A. Collier (Collingwood); 1930, S. Judkins (Richmond); 1931, H. Bunton (Fitz-roy); 1932, H. Bunton (Fitzroy); 1933, W. Small-

horn (Fitzroy); 1934, R. Reynolds (Essendon); 1935, H. Bunton (Fitzroy); 1936, D. Ryan (Fitzroy);

1937, R. Reynolds (Essendon); 1938, R. Reynolds (Essendon); 1939, M. Whelan (Collingwood).

SELLWOOD INJURED

J. Sellwood will be unable to play for Geelong on Saturday against Essendon in the League semi final. Yesterday he was relieved of police duty and is confined to bed with a badly torn leg muscle. The loss of Sellwood is serious to Geelong. He has shown consistent form this season and is one of seven regular players who were in the premiership team last year. Other members of that team are Everett, Hore, Grant, Arklay, A. Muller,and Dougherty. Arklay, Everett, and Grant have played in every match this season.