Past voting systems
Initial voting rules for the Woodham and Recorder cups, used from 1924 until 1932, saw the field umpire award two votes in each game: one to the best player on each team; the player with the most votes at the end of the season won the cup. This was amended in 1933, such that the umpire awarded a single vote to the overall best player on the ground; this voting system was used from 1933 until 1939.
When the V.F.A. Medal was established in 1933, its voting system was: the field umpire and each of the two goal umpires separately awarded two votes to the player they deemed best on ground, and one vote to the player they deemed second-best on ground – a total of nine votes awarded per game, with any player able to poll a maximum of six; this voting system was retained when the Recorder Cup and V.F.A. Medals were combined in 1940, and was then used for Liston Trophy voting until 1980.
The system was altered in 1981 when a second field umpire was introduced; after this change, each field umpire awarded votes to the best two players on a 2–1 basis, but the goal umpires did not, giving a new total of six votes per game, with any player able to poll a maximum of four. This system was used only in 1981, and the present day 3–2–1 voting system, based on agreement between the two (and later, three) field umpires, was adopted in 1982.
During the 1930s, multiple players could win the V.F.A. Medal if they were tied on total number of votes. When the Liston Trophy was instituted in 1945, a countback system was introduced, such that if two players tied on votes, the award would go to the player who polled the higher number of first preferences; and (after 1981) if still tied, the higher number of second preferences; if these countbacks failed to separate the players (as occurred in 1978), the players were joint winners. The countback system was abandoned from 1988, making total votes the only criterion for the award; and, in September 1989, the Association amended the history books and awarded Liston Trophies retrospectively to players who had been beaten on a countback, following by five months a similar action taken by the Victorian Football League regarding players who had been beaten for the Brownlow Medal on countback.
