Submitted by aarAdmin on Fri, 09/19/2025 - 00:00
The first Brownlow Medal for best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) to be sold at auction since 2011 went under the hammer for $95,000 on September 18 at Melbourne-based Leski Auctions - $20,000 above its top catalogue estimate.
The 1981 medal (lot 264) belonged to foundation Sydney Swans captain and ruckman the late Barry Round (1950-2022) who finished on the same number of votes that year with Fitzroy forward Bernie Quinlan, affectionately known as Super Boot.
The Swans were established in 1985 after South Melbourne (a founding member of the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1897) was relocated to Sydney.
Round played 328 games during his VFL/AFL career for Footscray and South Melbourne/Sydney from 1969 to 1985 and also won the 1987 J.J. Liston Trophy for Best and Fairest for the Victorian Football Association (lot 296), which sold for $3600, one of only three players to win both awards.
His other accolade is the 1990 Norm Goss Medal for best player in a VFA Grand Final (lot 310), which brought $2000.
Two Brownlow Medals were sold in 2011 – one belonging to Geelong’s Edward “Carji” Greeves, who in 1924 was the first ever recipient, for a massive $203,600 – and the other to Richmond’s Stan Judkins, who won the club’s first Brownlow in 1930, for $30,000.
Former St Kilda player and first chairman and CEO of the AFL Ross Oakley’s collection also attracted significant interest with his 1966 – the year the club won its only premiership to date – football jumper bearing the number 12 (lot 351) selling for $3400.
Another item from Oakley‘s collection – a 1966 personal souvenir poster celebrating St Kilda’s premiership by Melbourne Herald cartoonist WEG (lot 354) – reached $4000.
An exceptionally rare Collingwood life membership medallion (lot 418) presented to Archie Smith (1872-1961), who played 176 games for the club from 1892-1904 kicking 205 goals, brought $6500.
Other auction items of significance included former Australian Test cricketer Norm O’Neill’s 1961 baggy green cap (lot 163) which sold for $7500. A champion batsman, O’Neill played 42 Tests for Australia between 1958 and 1965.
Another successful outcome was the $6500 paid for Albert Percy “Tich” Freeman’s (1888-1965) sterling silver presentation cutlery set in a Chippendale Revival mahogany four drawer canteen on a matching stand (lot 116).
Freeman was the only bowler to take 300 wickets in an English cricket season and the second-most prolific wicket-taker in first class cricket.
Other items included rare football trade cards such as the American Tobacco Company “Dollars” specimens featuring South Adelaide Football Club’s Jack McGaffin, who celebrated five early premierships (lot 660), and Norwood Football Club’s James Metherall (lot 661), part of the 1894 Norwood premiership team, selling respectively for $3400 and $3200.
