1981 Brownlow Medal

Award

1981 Brownlow Medal

Winners

Bernie Quinlan (Fitzroy)
Barry Round (South Melbourne)
22 votes

Television/radio coverage

Network

Seven Network

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Brownlow Medal

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The 1981 Brownlow Medal was the 54th year the award was presented to the player adjudged the fairest and best player during the Victorian Football League (VFL) home and away season.^[1] Bernie Quinlan of the Fitzroy Football Club and Barry Round of the South Melbourne Football Club both won the medal by polling twenty-two votes during the 1981 VFL season.^[2]

Prior the 1981 season, the VFL amended the rules to allow for the awarding Brownlow Medals jointly to all players tied for the most votes; this eliminated tie-breakers which had previously been in place to ensure there would be only a single winner. The tie between Round and Quinlan meant that this new provision was used in its very first season.^[3]

Leading votegetters

	Player	Votes
=1st	Bernie Quinlan (Fitzroy)	22
=1st	Barry Round (South Melbourne)	22
3rd	Rodney Ashman (Carlton)	21
4th	Peter Moore (Collingwood)	16
=5th	Merv Neagle (Essendon)	15
	John Mossop (Geelong)
	Trevor Barker (St Kilda)
8th	Tony Buhagiar (Essendon)	14
9th	Geoff Cunningham (St Kilda)	13
10th	Ken Hunter (Carlton)	12

References

^ Lovett, Michael, ed. (2009). AFL Record Season Guide 2009. Docklands, Victoria: Slattery Media Group. p. 496. ISBN 978-0-9805162-6-5.
^ "1981 Brownlow Medal". AFL Tables. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
^ "Medals awarded retrospectively". The Canberra Times. Canberra, ACT. 6 April 1989. p. 18.