The AFL has announced the 2021 VFL and VFLW Awards Ceremony will be held on Thursday October 7 from 6.30 AEDT to recognise and reward the outstanding year of football in the VFL and rebel VFLW Competition.
The major virtual event will be broadcast across the VFL website at www.afl.com.au/VFL and hosted by Nigel Carmody and Nat Edwards.
The VFL and VFLW Awards will feature;
- 2021 Lambert-Pearce Medal
- 2021 rebel VFLW Team of the Year
- 2021 rebel VFLW Coach of the Year
- 2021 VFL Team of the Year
- 2021 VFL Coach of the Year
- 2021 Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal
- 2021 Debbie Lee Rising Star Medal
- Ann Rulton VFLW Volunteer of the Year
- Alex Gillon VFLW Volunteer of the Year
- 2021 Rohenna Young – VFLW Leading Goalkicker
- 2021 Jim ‘Frosty’ Miller – VFL Leading Goalkicker
- VFL Life Membership
The 2021 VFL Liston Trophy will not be awarded. The Liston has a proud and rich history and previous winners are icons of Australian football. The AFL determined that given the uneven number of available games played to all players, that awarding a winner was not the right decision this season.
A new name will be added to the list of VFLW greats when the prestigious Lambert-Pearce Medal for the competition’s best-and-fairest player is announced.
The medal, which honours women’s football pioneer Helen Lambert, who died in August, and the competition’s greatest player in seven-time winner Daisy Pearce.
There are plenty of contenders to join Darebin stars Pearce, Katie Brennan and Lauren Pearce and Williamstown’s Jess Duffin as the fifth winner of the VFLW award, and also add their name to a VWFL honour roll that includes the great Debbie Lee, Shannon McFerran and Sharon Bonnici.
Another young star will shine bright when the VFL announces the winner of the prestigious Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal tomorrow night.
The medal, which honours Des Fothergill, Barry Round and Sam Mitchell, the three men to have won the J.J. Liston Trophy-Brownlow Medal double, is awarded for the VFL’s most promising talent under the age of 24 at the start of the season.
The past 14 winners of the Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal have gone on to be drafted to the AFL, with 2017 winner Bayley Fritsch kicking six goals for Melbourne in last week’s AFL Grand Final and Michael Hibberd also starring for the Demons – and there is a crack field assembled dreaming of being No.15.
About the 2021 VFL & VFLW Awards:
About Rohenna Young:
Rohenna has been involved in Women’s Football over 21 years as a player, coach and executive board member of the Victorian Women’s Football League (VWFL). Rohenna won the Best First Year Player award for the VWFL and played in four premiership teams, winning the Lisa Hardeman medal for best on ground in a grand final. Rohenna was a four time All-Australian and seven time Victorian representative, club and state captain.
About Jim ‘Frosty’ Miller:
Miller was leading goalkicker in the VFA six times over a seven-year span
At the end of his career he amassed 885 goals at an average of 4.8 goals per game
Dandenong Full-Forward in Team of the Century
About Debbie Lee:
Debbie Lee becomes the first woman inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame
A five-time Helen Lambert medallist for the Victorian women’s competition best and fairest, a seven-time club best and fairest, a dual Lisa Hardeman medallist for best on ground in the Grand Final, a triple premiership player, a six-time All-Australian and 16-time Victorian representative.
About Ann Rulton:
ANN Rulton helped establish two clubs — St Kilda Sharks and Darebin Falcons — that are now part of the VFL Women’s competition and feeding the AFL W.
About Alex Gillon:
Longest-serving president of the VFLA and was mayor of the City of Brunswick
About Fothergill-Round-Mitchell:
The medal is named after Des Fothergill, Barry Round and Sam Mitchell, all of whom did the Brownlow Medal-JJ Liston Trophy double.
About Lambert-Pearce:
Lambert was one of the original drivers of the female game in Victoria and was honoured with the Lambert Medal for the former Victorian Women’s Football League best-and-fairest, and her name was retained alongside modern-day great Daisy Pearce with the Lambert-Pearce Medal when the VFLW competition was created in 2016. She is credited for being among the drivers of the VWFL’s formation in 1981 and was a founding committee member, but only got to play for two seasons as the inaugural captain of the Broadmeadows Scorpions
Daisy Pearce has won six Lambert-Pearce medals – the most of any player.
