Rothmans Medal

The Rothmans Medal was the premier individual award in both the State Leagues of New South Wales and Victorian Soccer and the New South Wales Rugby League and Brisbane Rugby League competitions, and later in the Australian Rugby League, which was given to the player voted by referees as the best and fairest in those competitions for the season. The award was established in both leagues in 1968, and ran until 1997 while in soccer 1970 was its first year and it ran until 1987. The NSL took the preeminent position in soccer in 1977 and the Rothmans Medal was superseded by the Johnny Warren Medal in 1990. In 1998, with the establishment of the National Rugby League, the Rothmans Medal was replaced by the Dally M Medal as the official Player of the Year award.

History[]

The Rothmans Medal was the first official player-of-the-year award to be established in rugby league in Australia. The medal was sponsored by Rothmans International, a tobacco production company. There were two Rothmans Medals awarded each year: one for the best player in the New South Wales Rugby League, and one for the best player in the Brisbane Rugby League.

The voting for the Rothmans Medal was done by the match-day referee. After each match, he awarded three votes to the best player, two votes to the second-best player, and one vote to the third-best player. This is the same basic format as the modern day Dally M, except that the votes are now determined by the media.

The two Rothmans Medals were first awarded in 1968, and were awarded each year until 1996. In 1997, the Rothmans Medal in New South Wales became known as the Provan-Summons medal, because all tobacco advertising and sponsorship was prohibited in Australia in 1992, under the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992; the medal then disappeared altogether in 1998 with the merger of the Australian Rugby League and the Australian Super League. The Queensland Rothmans Medal was also last awarded in 1996, as the Queensland Cup superseded the Brisbane Rugby League as Queensland's premier rugby league competition in 1997.

Rothmans Medal winners[]

New South Wales[]

Note: includes Provan-Summons Medal winner in 1997.

Year	Winner	Position	Team
1968	Terry Hughes	Halfback	Cronulla
1969	Denis Pittard	Five-eighth	South Sydney
1970	Kevin Junee	Halfback	Eastern Suburbs
1971	Denis Pittard	Five-eighth	South Sydney
1972	Tommy Raudonikis	Halfback	Western Suburbs
1973	Ken Maddison	Second-row	Cronulla
1974	Graham Eadie	Fullback	Manly-Warringah
1975	Steve Rogers	Centre	Cronulla
1976	Ray Higgs	Second-row	Parramatta
1977	Mick Cronin	Centre	Parramatta
1978	Mick Cronin	Centre	Parramatta
1979	Ray Price	Lock	Parramatta
1980	Geoff Bugden	Prop	Newtown
1981	Kevin Hastings	Halfback	Eastern Suburbs
1982	Greg Brentnall	Fullback	Canterbury
1983	Michael Eden	Five-eighth	Eastern Suburbs
1984	Terry Lamb	Five-eighth	Canterbury
1985	Wayne Pearce	Lock	Balmain
1986	Mal Cochrane	Hooker	Manly-Warringah
1987	Peter Sterling	Halfback	Parramatta
1988	Barry Russell	Halfback	Cronulla
1989	Gavin Miller Mark Sargent	Second-row Prop	Cronulla Newcastle
1990	Peter Sterling	Halfback	Parramatta
1991	Ewan McGrady	Halfback, Fullback	Canterbury
1992	Allan Langer	Halfback	Brisbane
1993	Ricky Stuart	Halfback	Canberra
1994	David Fairleigh	Second-row	North Sydney
1995	Paul Green	Halfback	Cronulla
1996	Jason Taylor	Halfback	North Sydney
1997	Brad Fittler	Five-eighth	Sydney Roosters

Queensland[]

^[1]

Year	Winner	Position	Team
1968		Fullback	Western Suburbs
1969	Johnny Brown	Halfback	Northern Suburbs
1970		Five-eighth	Southern Suburbs
1971		Second-row	Wynnum-Manly
1972		Five-eighth	Valleys
1973		Centre	Eastern Suburbs
1974		Lock	Eastern Suburbs
1975		Lock	Northern Suburbs
1976	Darryl Brohman	Prop	Northern Suburbs
1977	Alan Currie	Lock	Eastern Suburbs
1978		Centre	Redcliffe
1979		Lock	Northern Suburbs
1980		Five-eighth	Brothers
1981	Chris Phelan	Lock	Southern Suburbs
1982	Tony Currie	Fullback, Centre	Western Suburbs
1983		Second-row	Eastern Suburbs
1984	Cavill Heugh	Prop	Eastern Suburbs
1985	Ian French	Second-row	Wynnum-Manly
1986	Bryan Niebling Scott Tronc	Second-row, Prop Second-row, Prop	Redcliffe Southern Suburbs
1987	Gene Miles	Centre	Wynnum-Manly
1988		Halfback	Western Suburbs
1989	Neil Tierney	Prop	Wynnum-Manly
1990	Trevor Benson		Redcliffe
1991	Darryl Duncan	Five-eighth	Northern Suburbs
1992	Jason Hanrahan		Southern Suburbs
1993	Paul Green	Halfback	Eastern Suburbs Western Suburbs
1994		Prop	Brothers
1995		Prop	Redcliffe
1996		Lock, Second-row	Western Suburbs

References[]

External links[]

• Rothmans Medal at qrl.com.au
• Dally M Medla at hunterlink.net.au