Australia’s superstar Sam Kerr is yet to win soccer’s most prestigious trophy.
Journalists had a shortlist of 30 male players to chose from, and they had to pick five players in order, with six points given to their top pick, four points to their second pick, three points to their third, two points to their fourth and one point to their fifth.
Karim Benzema his 2022 Ballon d’Or crowning.Credit:AP
As players play in different leagues across the world, the voting is based on the prior season and voters must consider three factors – a players’ individual performance, the team’s performance and the player’s class and sense of fair play.
Australian journalist Daniel Garb had the honour in 2022, and he voted for Karim Benzema, who was a clear winner of the award.
NBA’s Most Valuable Player
Similar to the Ballon d’Or, the NBA’s most valuable player is voted on by a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters across the USA and Canada, and voters must pick their top five players in the competition once the regular season has concluded.
Each first-place vote is worth 10 points, with seven points given to second-place, five points to third-place, three points to fourth-place and one point to fifth.
Previously, NBA fans have also been given the chance to have their say via an online poll, making the fans the 101st voter.
The award is determined solely on the regular season, with a separate award given for the NBA Finals MVP.
The 2021-22 MVP award was won by the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic, with 875 points, from the 76ers’ Joel Embiid (706 points) and the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo (595 points).
Allan Border Medal, Belinda Clark Medal for Australia’s best male and female cricketers
Awarded to Australian cricket’s best player each season, the Allan Border medal takes in 3-2-1 voting in each game Australia play at an international level, and is predominantly a peer-voted award.
After each match, individual players vote for their top three players in order, while the votes of umpires (home games), match referees (away games) and media are combined into a collective 3-2-1 group.
As there are fewer Tests than one-day internationals and Twenty20s each season, votes are weighted, with Tests given a value of six, ODIs a value of three and T20s a value of two.
Australia’s best women’s international cricketer is awarded the Belinda Clark Award under a similar voting system.
Steve Smith is a three-time winner of the Allan Border Medal.
Dally M, for the NRL’s best-and-fairest player
After each NRL game, an individual judge – part of a panel of past players and rugby league experts – is tasked with giving their 3-2-1 on the best player on the field.
It is the voting system most like the Brownlow Medal, but umpires are not involved.
One key difference to the Brownlow, however, is the eligibility of suspended players.
Nicholas Hynes won the 2022 Dally M.Credit:Getty Images
The Brownlow has a firm rule that players who miss a match through suspension are ineligible to win the award. In league, a player can miss one match through suspension and still be eligible to win the Dally M, but will have three points stripped from their end-of-season tally.
Any player suspended for two or more matches during the season is ineligible to win the league’s best and fairest.
Votes are public until round 12 of the premiership season, but are kept secret in the second half of the year until the awards night.
NFL’s Most Valuable Player
Unlike the AFL’s Brownlow Medal where votes are cast on each match, the NFL’s most valuable player award has a much simpler voting system.
It involves a panel of 50 sportswriters placing their vote on one player in the week between the season ending and the play-offs starting.
Those sportswriters given the privilege of voting must cover the NFL on a full-time basis.
The award is run by the Associated Press, who selects the panel tasked with voting on the award. Simply, of the 50 votes, the player with the most votes wins. The 2021 award was claimed by Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers for a second time, with 39 votes, with Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady was second with 10 votes.
Greg Norman Medal, for Australia’s best golfer
While it has a smaller profile than some of the other individual best-and-fairest awards, the Greg Norman Medal is Australian golf’s most prestigious voted award.
The recipient can be either male or female, and is determined by a panel of five judges at the end of each year, based on their success on the many golfing tours across the world.
Golf legends, such as Ian Baker-Finch, make up the panel. The award was introduced in 2015, and winners include Jason Day (twice), Minjee Lee (twice), Cameron Smith and Hannah Green.
Minjee Lee has won two Greg Norman Medals.Credit:Getty Images
Newcombe Medal, for Australia’s best tennis player
The Newcombe Medal, named after Australian tennis legend John Newcombe, has been awarded annually since 2010 to Australia’s most outstanding elite tennis player and ambassador for the sport.
Nominations and the award recipient are selected by a panel appointed by Tennis Australia, and are open to male and female players, as well as wheelchair tennis players.
