Michael Tuck Medal

The Michael Tuck Medal is awarded to the best-and-fairest player in the AFL Pre-season Cup Final. The award was presented annually between 1992 and 2013; since 2014, the award has not been presented due to the preseason being structured without a final. It is named after Michael Tuck, the current VFL-AFL games record holder who played 426 senior matches for Hawthorn between 1972 and 1991.^[1]

Recipients

Italics - denotes winner from losing team of that Grand Final.

Trivia

• Adelaide's Simon Goodwin is the only player to win the medal despite playing in the losing side when they were defeated by Geelong in 2006.
• Nick Stevens is the only player to win two Michael Tuck medals. He won the award in 2002 with Port Adelaide, and in 2007 with Carlton.
• Tuck committed an amusing faux pas in 2005, when he himself accidentally referred to the medal as the Norm Smith Medal while presenting it (the Norm Smith Medal is awarded to the best-and-fairest player in the premiership season grand final). He has alluded to this mistake prior to awarding the medal in future seasons by emphasising his name; in 2009 his words were "my name is Michael Tuck, and the winner of the Michael Tuck Medal is Joel Selwood."

References