The Brownlow, the Coleman, the Rising Star, the Norm Smith and the All-Australian — how each is decided, and who qualifies.
The Brownlow is football's most prestigious individual award. The Coleman rewards the league's leading goalkicker. The Rising Star recognises the best first-year player. Each award has its own eligibility rules and voting system — codified in Regulations 21 through 28.
Awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the home-and-away season, the Brownlow Medal (Regulation 21) is voted on by the three field umpires after every match. Umpires award three, two and one votes to the best three players on the ground — in that order. Votes are sealed and revealed at the Brownlow Medal count in the week before the Grand Final.
Eligibility is a critical detail: a player suspended during the home-and-away season is ineligible to win the medal, regardless of how many votes they poll. This rule has denied several leading vote-getters — including Chris Grant in 1997 — the medal despite finishing on top of the count.
The Rising Star (Regulation 22) is awarded to the best player in their first or second year with an AFL club, subject to eligibility criteria including total senior matches played and age at the start of the season. Players are nominated round by round by a panel, and the winner is chosen at the end of the season.
A player is ineligible for the Rising Star if they have been suspended during the season. The award has launched the careers of Gary Ablett Jr, Michael Hurley, Patrick Cripps, and Sam Walsh — a list of names that reflects the quality of first-year talent at the highest level.
The Coleman Medal (Regulation 23) goes to the leading goalkicker in the home-and-away season. Goals kicked in finals do not count. The award is named after John Coleman, whose career at Essendon in the early 1950s produced some of the most prolific goalkicking totals in the game's history.
The Norm Smith Medal (Regulation 24) is awarded to the best player on the ground in the Grand Final, voted on by a panel of three former players and football journalists. The medal was first awarded in 1979 and is considered one of the game's most coveted individual honours — impossible to separate from the success of a premiership campaign.
The ANZAC Medal, presented on ANZAC Day each year at the Essendon vs Collingwood match, recognises the player who best exemplifies the spirit of ANZAC Day through their performance. It is voted on by a panel and is one of the few medals awarded during the home-and-away season that carries the weight of a major individual honour.
The All-Australian team (Regulation 25) is selected at the end of each home-and-away season and represents the best 22 players of the year, in nominated positions. A selection panel announces a squad of around 40 in the week after Round 24, then names the final team in a dedicated ceremony.
Selection in the All-Australian team is a marker of elite performance — typically an indicator that a player is in the top handful at their position for the season. A captain and vice-captain are named from among the selected 22.
The Mark of the Year and Goal of the Year awards (Regulation 26) recognise the single best mark and goal of the season, chosen from weekly shortlists produced across the home-and-away season. Both awards are decided by a public-and-panel hybrid voting system and are announced during the Grand Final week celebrations.