The Trevor Barker Award is the accolade awarded to St Kilda Football Club’s best and fairest player each season. It has been awarded since 1914, although it wasn’t named in honour of the late great, Trevor Barker, until after the Saints’ legends passing in 1996.
Reigning champion, Jack Steven, is the favourite for Thursday night’s award, ahead of fellow leaders Nick Riewoldt, Leigh Montagna, Jarryn Geary and Jack Newnes. The vastly improved Tom Hickey and Seb Ross are part of the next group pushing for line honours.
If star midfielder Steven claims the 2016 prize, the 26-year-old will become only the tenth player in the club's history to win the best and fairest on three occasions, achieving a feat that only a handful of the Saints all-time greats have.
Inaugural winner, Wels Eicke was a midfielder before evolving into one of the best defenders of his time. Eicke won the first two best and fairest’s in 1914 and 1915, and three of the first four awards.
Champion midfielders from the modern era, Nathan Burke and Lenny Hayes, are two more recent triple winners, along with the captain of the Saints’ Team of the Century, Darrel Baldock.
Ahead of that clique, sits dual Brownlow medallist, Robert Harvey, with four Trevor Barker Awards listed on his distinguished football resume. And alongside him is arguably St Kilda’s greatest ever full-back, Bill Cubbins, who also won four best and fairest’s during the 1920’s.
But out in front, and by some distance, is champion forward, Nick Riewoldt, who has six club champion trophies nestled in his glittering trophy cabinet. His maiden title came in 2002 in just his first full year of senior football, and he won his most recent best and fairest two years ago.
Given his stellar form across 21 games this season, could the 33-year-old enter rare territory by becoming a seven-time best and fairest winner? Only eight men have done it in the game’s history, including Bob Skilton and Leigh Matthews; two of the greatest players to ever pull on a pair of boots.
From this year’s playing group, only Steven, Riewoldt and Sam Fisher have won the Saints most prestigious individual honour, with the latter also a dual winner, after he claimed the award in 2008 and 2011.
When Harvey won back-to-back Trevor Barker Award’s in 1997 and 1998, the recently elevated legend also claimed consecutive Brownlow Medals.
Harvey is one of only seven St Kilda players to win both the best and fairest and the Brownlow in the same year, with another club legend, Tony Lockett, also achieving the feat in 1987.
In the mid-1960s, superstar midfielders – and club legends – Ian Stewart (1966) and Ross Smith (1967) won both awards in each season.
And before their time, in a golden era for the Saints, three club greats completed the set in three consecutive seasons at the tail end of the 1950s. Brian Gleeson (1957), Neil Roberts (1958) and Verdun Howell (1959) all accomplished the remarkable combination.
Despite not previously polling prolifically on Brownlow night, Steven is tipped to finish high in this season’s count, following arguably his finest season yet. Is it possible he could join that exclusive club above? Only time will tell.
Like all clubs in the competition, best and fairest voting evolves by the year depending on certain football philosophies and values. The current voting system for the Trevor Barker Award is as follows:
Trevor Barker Award voting system:
- Five coaches (Senior Coach plus 4x Assistant Coaches) will vote in each match.
- Not all players need to be given a vote
- A poor result may see only 3-4 players receive votes, a strong result might see 15-16 players
- Coaches to vote confidentially, ie. not confer with each other
- Each player can receive votes as follows:
1 vote: played role effectively (but should not be used as an encouragement reward)
2 votes: among the best for St Kilda in this game
3 votes: one, two or very occasionally, three players who are deemed the very best on ground
4 votes: an exceptionally outstanding game, very rarely given (say 10+ goals, or 45+ possessions)
