Mention Swans and Brownlow Medal in the same sentence and more often than note you’ll also find the name Bob Skilton.
After all, Skilton has won the medal three times in 1959, ’63 and ‘68. He heads the Swans’ all-time vote tally. He finished top 10 in the medal nine times. And he led the Swans vote-count in no less than 10 seasons.
Somewhere nearby, too, will be the name Adam Goodes. He is the club’s only other multiple winner, having won it in 2003 and ‘06. He ranks second in all-time votes. And he finished top 10 and led the Swans count seven times.
Also, you’ll find the names of the club’s nine other Brownlow Medallists: Herbie Matthews (1940), Ron Clegg (1949), Fred Goldsmith (1955), Peter Bedford (1970), Graham Teasdale (1977), Barry Round (1981), Greg Williams (1986), Gerard Healy (1988) and Paul Kelly (1995).
They are all part of a rich and proud history in which South Melbourne/Sydney Swans players have won the game’s highest individual honour more often than players from any other club.
They are also part of a very exclusive group, with only 11 of 1411 Swans players having won the coveted medal, which was instituted by the then VFL in 1924 following the death of Charles Brownlow, after whom it is named.
He was a Geelong player during the pre-VFL era from 1880-91, captaining the club to a VFA premiership in 1883, and was also club secretary from 1885-1923 and VFL president from 1918-19.
Also secretary and treasurer of the Geelong Cricket Association, Brownlow was inducted as an administrator into the AFL Hall of Fame in 1997.
While the award is generally regarded as going to the “best and fairest” player, the specific criteria specifies “fairest and best”, as was noted in a letter of congratulations sent by League officials to the inaugural winner Edward ‘Carji’ Greeves of Geelong in 1924. It read:
Dear Sir,
On behalf of the Victorian Football League, we desire
to place on permanent record the appreciation of your excellent play
during the Season 1924.
You were selected as the fairest and best player and we have
pleasure in presenting the accompanying Gold Medal in recognition of those sterling qualities.
Trusting that you will be long spared to interest yourself in the
adancement [sic] of the Game.
We are, yours sincerely
- Baldwin Spencer(President),
M.E. Green (Treasurer), E. L. Wilson (Secretary)
Since the inauguration of the award it has been decided by the umpires.
Originally only one vote was awarded in each game. In the event of a tie the winner was to be the player who had played the fewest games.
In 1930 Richmond’s Stan Judkins, Footscray’s Allan Hopkins and Collingwood’s Harry Collier each polled four votes, but Judkins was declared the winner because he had played only 12 games. Hopkins had played 15 and Collier 18.
In 1931 the voting system was expanded to include 3-2-1 votes awarded to the best three players on the ground. In the event of a tie, the player who had received the most three-vote ratings was declared the winner, and then, if the players were still tied, it went to the player with the most two-vote ratings.
Herbie Matthews won the Swans’ first Brownlow Medal in 1940 in a tie with Collingwood’s Des Fothergill that could be not split. Each played 18 games and polled 14 times for a massive 32 votes. The League kept the original medal and awarded two replica medals.
Ron Clegg won the Swans’ second Brownlow in 1949 on a countback from Hawthorn’s Col Austen, before Fred Goldsmith won the Swans’ third Brownlow in 1950. In 1959, Bob Skilton won the first of his three Brownlow medals and the Swans’ fourth overall on a countback from St Kilda’s Verdun Howell.
After Skilton also won the Swans’ fifth and sixth Brownlows, Peter Bedford won the club’s seventh in 1970 and put the Swans equal on top of the club Brownlow List with Fitzroy and St Kilda.
In 1976-77 votes were awarded on a 3-2-1 basis by two umpires individually, and in ’77 South Melbourne’s Graham Teasdale won the medal with 59 votes. For historical and comparison purposes, votes in those years have been divided by half, meaning Teasdale is credited with 29.5 votes in 1977.
The Teasdale win was the club’s eighth and put South Melbourne clear on top of the club Brownlow ladder – a position they have never surrendered.
In 1980 the then VFL abandoned the countback system, ruling that more than one player could receive the medal in the same year, and awarded retrospective medals to Collier and Hopkins (1930), Fothergill (1940), Austen (1949) and Howell (1959), among others.
In 1981 South Melbourne’s Barry Round shared in the first joint Brownlow Medal presentation when he topped the vote count with Fitzroy’s Bernie Quinlan, while the Swans’ Greg Williams shared the medal with Hawthorn’s Robert Dipierdomenico in 1986.
The Swans also won the Brownlow via Gerard Healy in 1988 and Paul Kelly in 1995, and in 2003 Goodes was part of the first ‘live’ three-way tie when he shared the medal with Collingwood’s Nathan Buckley and Adelaide’s Mark Ricciuto.
Goodes became the 12th multiple winner in 2006 before Chris Judd and Gary Ablett Jr did likewise in 2010 and 2013 respectively.
To the end of 2016 the Swans led the all-time club Brownlow list with 14 from St Kilda (10), Western Bulldogs (10), Collingwood (9), Essendon (8), Fitzroy (8). Geelong (7) and Melbourne (7).
The club also has been involved in six of the League’s 12 medal ties.
Rightly so, there is a raft of South Melbourne/Sydney players who figure prominently in the proud history of the AFL’s most prestigious individual award.
Silky Skilton
Bob Skilton averaged 0.763 Brownlow Medal votes per game. Or better than two votes every three games. For 15 years.
It is the equivalent in modern day terms of 15 seasons in a row of 15 or 16 votes a season. Remarkable.
In a sport where often the numbers don’t always tell the true story, particularly not Brownlow Medal numbers, they very definitely do in the case of Skilton.
Through a tough era for the Swans from the late 1950s, the diminutive centreman was an extraordinary and consistent superstar.
He played 237 games for the club over 16 years and 15 seasons from the late 1950’s, missing the entire 1969 season after he snapped his achilles in a practice match.
One of only four players in AFL history to win the Brownlow three times, alongside Haydn Bunton, Dick Reynolds and Ian Stewart, he polled in the medal in 14 different seasons.
Only in his last season in 1971, when he was 32, did he miss out. And by then he already had a club record 180 votes to rank ninth all-time in the AFL.
The 1959, ’63 and ‘68 winner topped 10 votes nine times. He topped 20 votes three times in an era where that was a very special achievement. And he finished top 10 in voting a staggering nine times.
Playing through an era of 12 teams and 18-game seasons, Skilton was a clear standout in a struggling team.
In his first medal win in 1959 the Swans finished 9th with eight wins. In ’63 they were 11th with four wins. And in ’68 they were ninth with six wins and a draw.
From 1958 to 1970 Skilton’s medal finishes were an extraordinary 3rd, tie 1st, tie 7th, tie 17th, tie 7th, 1st, tie 8th, tie 6th, tie 18th, tie 7th, 1st, did not play, tie 24th, no votes.
Of 63 players who have polled 20 or more Brownlow votes in the red and white, Skilton’s 0.763 votes per game average is third only to Herbie Matthews (0.860) and Lance Franklin (0.825).
Matthews won the Swans’ first Brownlow Medal in 1940 after he’d finished third in 1936 and second in 1937, and was third again in 1941.
He played 191 games, including 177 in which votes were awarded, to achieve his 0.860 votes per game average.
Franklin’s 0.825 average comes from has his first three years with the Swans in 2014-16 in which he played 58 home-and-away games and polled 47 votes.
His career votes per game average, calculated over nine years at Hawthorn and his first three years with the Swans, is 0.571. In that time, he’s played 226 home-and-away games and polled 129 votes.
Only four of the Swans’ Brownlow medals have been won by players in teams that have played finals in the same year: Bedford when they finished fourth in 1970, Teasdale when they were fifth in 1977, and Goodes when they were fourth and second in 2003 and 2006.
Swans all-time leading vote-getters
180 – Bob Skilton
163 – Adam Goodes
121 – Ron Clegg
117 – Herbie Matthews
103 – Paul Kelly
100 – Dan Hannebery
96 – Josh Kennedy
90 – Barry Round
89 – Jude Bolton
81.5 – Peter Bedford
81 – Brett Kirk
77 – Ryan O’Keefe
73 – Jack Graham
64 – Graham Teasdale
63 – Greg Williams
61 – Kieren Jack
61 – Daryn Cresswell
58 – Dennis Carroll
53 – Bill Gunn
53 – Jarrad McVeigh
52 – Fred Goldsmith
52 – Luke Power
50 – Jim Taylor
Note: Votes awarded in 1976-77 by two umpires separately have been halved for comparison purposes.
