Inaugurated in 1971 and presented to the Best and Fairest footballer voted upon by State League referees, the Gold Medal ultimately replaced the Bill Fleming Medal as the Victorian Soccer Federation’s premier personal honour. Monday will see the Gold Medal awarded to a male player for the 50th time, and the honour roll reads as a who’s who of Football Victoria greats from the past half-century.
Originally held at the Rothmans Auditorium in Port Melbourne, the inaugural Gold Medal proved a neck-and-neck contest, with four players on 20 votes heading into the final round. Dundee-born John Gardiner, who remarkably played just 14 of 22 matches with George Cross that year, polled three votes in the final round against Fitzroy United Alexander to nudge ahead of Hugh Murney (Hakoah), Ian Marshall (South Melbourne Hellas) and Jim McCracken (Box Hill).
Proving his undoubted class, Gardiner backed up his win in 1972, polling 25 votes, again with George Cross. Fitzroy United Alexander provided Gold Medal winners in 1973 (Vince Bannon) and 1974 (Pat Bannon), the first and only brothers to have won the award – Vince would add a second nine years later with Brunswick Juventus.
Another dual winner was Englishman David Baker, who claimed the honour with St Kilda Hakoah in 1975, and again in 1977. Baker’s wins bookended Prahran Slavia’s Jim Tansey, who polled in all but five matches to amass a remarkable 37 votes in 1976, the final year of the State League before the National Soccer League was formed.
Essendon Croatia’s Tommy Cumming followed the path laid down by John Gardiner with back-to-back wins in 1978 and 1979. Notably, he was presented with his first Gold Medal by then Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, who epitomised a trend of politicians attending Victorian football’s night of nights.
The remainder of the State League era witnessed eleven individual winners, including Frankston City’s Charlie Egan (1981), who would go on to win an NSL Golden Boot with South Melbourne and St Albans’ Branko Culina (1985) who would be the NSL Coach of the Year with Sydney Croatia a little over a decade later.
1994 witnessed the first ever multiple Gold Medal winners, with Croydon City’s Nick van Egmond sharing the spoils with 18-year-old Josip Skoko, who would later forge a 15-year professional career in Europe and earn 51 caps for the Socceroos. Dual winners reigned supreme the following year, Port Melbourne’s George Svigos this time joined by another teenager in Tom Pondeljak, who would play in multiple NSL Championship winning teams before etching his name in Melbourne Victory folklore with the winner in the 2009 A-League Grand Final.
But any discussion of the Gold Medal prior to the turn of the century is incomplete without mentioning the feats of George Jolevski. Already a household name in his hometown having represented Australia at the 1985 FIFA U16 World Cup in China and winning an NSL Championship with Marconi, Jolevski claimed the Gold Medal after a mid-season transfer to Altona Magic, as they sealed a hat-trick of championships in 1997. He would claim a hat-trick of his own, backing up upon his return to Thomastown Zebras in 1998 and winning an unprecedented third in succession in 1999 with Melbourne Raiders.
Altona Magic provided multiple winners throughout the next decade, with Zoran Todorovski (2001), Doug Mladenovic (2004) and Sash Becvinovski (2006). Not to be outdone, rivals Preston Lions also delivered three Gold Medals in that time, Chris Emsovski (2001 and 2003) twice and Anthony Magnacca (2005
Several imports have claimed honours in the modern era, indicative of the recent trend of visa players excelling in the National Premier Leagues Victoria. Englishmen Graham Hockless (2008), Ross Thompson (2009), Nick Hegarty (2012 and 2016) and Joe Guest (2019) have all added Gold Medals to their trophy cabinets. Brazilian-born Fernando De Moraes (2010) became the first South American to claim the honour, while Kamal Ibrahim was the first African-born winner in 2015.
With a two-year hiatus owing to COVID-19, the Gold Medal returns in 2022 with its 50th edition. Who will etch their name on the honour roll and play their part in a lineage now extending into a sixth decade? All will be revealed on Monday evening at Centrepiece at Melbourne Park.