The FD Book Medal - East Perth FC

The honour of winning the fairest and best award in any team at any level carries a high degree of satisfaction and achievement and some great football names have claimed the reward at the East Perth Football Club.

While the presentation of an award for the "Most Brilliant Player" was made in the club's early days, the award has been officially listed on the club's Honour Board since 1926 and after several name changes and formats, it has now become known as the FD Book Medal.

Recent Hall of Fame inductee Larry (Plum) Duffy heads the Book Medal list, winning the award in 1926 as a seasoned rover who was on his way to playing in all seven premierships from his debut year of 1919 through to 1927.

William (Billy) Thomas was the first player to win back-to-back medals in 1928-29, but that was quickly superceded by a hat-trick of wins to Herb Screaigh in 1932-33-34 and a fourth three years later.

Graham (Polly) Farmer won his first fairest and best in his second season, 1954 and he continued that dominance for six of the next seven years - broken only by his teenage friend and Sister Kate's colleague Ted (Square) Kilmurray in 1958.

Players like Derek Chadwick, Mal Brown and Peter Spencer collected successive medals, with the latter two also adding a third down the track and there have been several other multiple winners such as Stephen Curtis, George Giannakis, Peter Miller, Ryan Turnbull and Aaron Marley.

The effort of Marley, a tough and courageous defender from the coal-mining town of Collie, is worthy of mention.

Always something of a reluctant city player, the country product became a "medal specialist" in his career. If he wasn't winning a fairest and best or a premiership medallion at East Perth, he was claiming the Hayward Medal for the South West League's best player or the Pike Medal for best-afield in a grand final - or just another premiership medal with the Collie team of Mines Rovers and later with the amalgamated Collie Eagles.

The 2000 season wasn't only a premiership drought-breaker, with the club's first flag in 22 years, but it was a three-way tie with Marley joining David Swan and Rod Wheatley, who collected his second the next season.

The Missing Link

Football club records can often pose mysterious puzzles and East Perth's list of fairest and best players was no exception.

For many years the Honour Board in the club's foyer had the word "unrecorded" alongside the year of 1930, with no official records able to indicate who won this trophy.

Club historian Bill Forrest's continuous search of records had failed to provide the answer and he had listed 17 players from the 1930 season who played 12 or more games and suggested that the fairest and best player would have been one of those.

Despite a general appeal to club members for a copy of the 1930 annual report, or any knowledge of the award, the mystery remained.

However, during one of Forrest's regular cleaning sorties among the club's records after the shift to Leederville Oval, he discovered a discoloured and tattered piece of paper with several newspaper cuttings attached. A photo headed "East Perth Backs Prominent" had the caption "W. Gilbert (Subiaco follower and forward) appears to have little chance of getting the ball - M. Ryan, Davies and Baker, all of East Perth, have the advantage of numbers in this aerial duel."

The photo was very discoloured, but pasted on the back was a newspaper cutting headed - "East Perth Club's Meeting" - with the date of 1930 written across the top.

The article recorded the club's 1930 annual general meeting, showing a balance sheet with a deficit of 234 pounds (a considerable amount in 1930), which was put down to a multitude of causes, including the Depression being felt in the State - an explanation of why no annual report was printed in 1930.

Listed in the newspaper report was a resume of the season and a complete list of trophy winners - including the 1930 fairest and best winner, Albert Davies.

After being ‘unrecorded' for more than 70 years, Albert Davies has finally taken his place as a winner of the FD Book Medal on the club's fairest and best Honour Board and a missing link in East Perth's history has been solved. 

Below is the complete list of F.D Book Medalists: 
 

YEAR PLAYER 1926 Larry Duffy 1927 J. (Brum) O'Meara 1928 W.C.G. 'Billy' Thomas 1929 W.C.G. 'Billy' Thomas 1930 Bert Davies 1931 D.J. (Mick) Cronin 1932 Herb Screaigh 1933 Herb Screaigh 1934 Herb Screaigh 1935 Brian Ryan 1936 Leo Graham 1937 Herb Screaigh 1938 Ray Starr 1939 Dave Miller   Ritchie Thomas 1940 Ritchie Thomas 1941 Max O'Loughlin 1942 John 'Todge' Campbell 1943 Ray Perry 1944 John 'Todge' Campbell 1945 Harry Outridge 1946 Jim Washbourne 1947 Norm Gibney 1948 Frank Sparrow 1949 Ray Perry 1950 Frank Allen 1951 Ray Perry 1952 Frank Sparrow 1953 Jim Spencer 1954 Graham Farmer 1955 Graham Farmer 1956 Graham Farmer 1957 Graham Farmer 1958 Ted Kilmurray 1959 Graham Farmer 1960 Graham Farmer 1961 Graham Farmer 1962 Don Marinko 1963 Derek Chadwick 1964 Derek Chadwick 1965 Kevin Murray 1966 Syd Jackson 1967 Hans Verstegen 1968 Jim Haines 1969 Mal Brown 1970 Mal Brown 1971 Ken McAullay 1972 Mal Brown 1973 Gary Malarkey 1974 Ron Alexander 1975 Peter Spencer 1976 Peter Spencer 1977 Stephen Curtis 1978 Kevin Bryant 1979 Phil Kelly 1980 Wayne Otway 1981 Dean Turner 1982 Stephen Curtis 1983 Peter Spencer 1984 Grant Campbell 1985 Brett Stephens 1986 Craig Starcevich 1987 George Giannakis 1988 David Bain 1989 George Giannakis 1990 Lucio Baroni 1991 Ryan Turnbull 1992 Peter Miller 1993 Ryan Turnbull 1994 Dean Talbot 1995 Greg Jones 1996 Paul Peos 1997 Peter Miller 1998 Aaron Marley 1999 Ryan Turnbull 2000 Rod Wheatley   David Swan   Aaron Marley   (three-way tie) 2001 Rod Wheatley 2002 Paul Ridley 2003 Brent Cowell 2004 Troy Wilson 2005 Andrew Merrington 2006 Troy Wilson 2007 Frank Agostino 2008 Tim Noakes 2009 Trevor Oliver 2010 Craig Wulff 2011 Brendan Lee 2012 Paul Johnson 2013 Brendan Lee 2014 Steven Payne 2015 Paul Johnson 2016 Mitchell Fraser 2017 Julian Ameduri   Nathan Blee   Fraser McInness   (three-way tie) 2018 Mathew Allen   Patrick McGinnity   Luke Partington   (three-way tie) 2019  Jackson Ramsay 2020 Jackson Ramsay 2021 Christian Ameduri 2022 Hamish Brayshaw 2023 Mitch Crowden 2024 Mitch Crowden

1948 &1952 FD Book Medallist  Frank Sparrow Graham "Polly" Farmerholds the record for the most FD Book Medals. He won seven in 1954,55,56,57,59,60 & 61 Ted Kilmurray won his only FD Book Medal in 1958, between Farmers run of 7 medals Clubgames record holder Derek Chadwick wonback to back medals in 1963 & 64 Peter Spencer was the best player at the Club in 1975,76 & 83 Another multiple winner George Giannakis, he won Medals in  both 1987 & 89 Ryan Turball won 3 FD Book Medals  in 1991,93 & 99 Paul Peos was the Clubs best player in 1996 and later went on to coach the League side ten years later In 2000 a record three players tied for the FD Book Medal. David Swan pictured, was one of the three Troy Wilson won two FD Book Medals in 2004,06 2007 FD Book Medallist, Frank Agostino   2011 and 2013 winner Brendan Lee   2023 and 2024 winner Mitch Crowden with partner Georgia Moorhouse