Stan Judkins
Encyclopedia
Stan Judkins was an Australian rules football
er who played for the Richmond Football Club
in the Victorian Football League between 1928 and 1936. He became the first Richmond
player to win the game's most prestigious award, the Brownlow Medal
.
Judkins played his junior football as a rover for Greensborough and then moved to Northcote in the VFA for the 1926 season. Invited to Richmond
the following year, Judkins was forced to remain in the VFA for one more season due to clearance problems, caused by a dispute between the two competitions. Eventually, he made his way to Punt Road
in 1928, and he immediately became a first team regular, aged 20. He arrived at the club at the start of a golden era, and starred in the Tigers'
semifinal win over Carlton
, but was quiet during the loss to Collingwood
in the Grand Final
three weeks later.
A diminutive man at 166 cm and 61 kg, Judkins was a typical wing player of his era. At this time, teams generally used small, pacy men with good ground skills in the position. Judkins also earned praise for his handball and evasive ability; he was a hard man to tackle.
Judkins missed the Tigers'
1929 finals appearance due to injury, but started the next season in blistering form, which eventually petered out. Dropped from the side five weeks before the finals, Judkins languished in the seconds, unaware he was about to make history and change the way the game would decide its best player award. In 1924, the VFL instituted the Charles Brownlow Medal
, to honour a recently-deceased Geelong
player and official. It was decided by the umpires
, who gave a single vote to the player they believed to be the best afield. In 1930 the award carried little prestige – the winner was notified by mail and told to come and collect the award from the VFL office. Indeed, the concept of individual awards in a team game was only beginning to gain acceptance.
On the Wednesday after the last game of the 1930 home and away season, the votes were tallied and Judkins was tied in first place with Harry Collier
(Collingwood
) and Allan Hopkins
(Footscray) with a meagre tally of 4 votes. By comparison, the lowest previous tally to win had been 6 votes. Two nights after the counting, the umpires
board (which administered the award) recommended that no medal be awarded as there was no provision for a tied result.
However, a week later, Judkins was sitting at home when his father came in to show him a copy of a newspaper that contained an article stating Judkins had won the Brownlow Medal
. Judkins was notified by the VFL to come and collect his prize and that was that. Judkins was more excited by the prospect of playing on the Saturday, when he had been recalled to the Richmond
side to take on Collingwood in the semifinal. Encouraged by the award, he played a great game, but the Tigers
lost a thrilling contest by three points.
It transpired that the VFL administration had over-ruled the umpires
board and created a criterion that the medal should be awarded to the player who played the least number of games. Judkins' banishment to the seconds had won him the award. It has been claimed that a vote simply labelled "Collier" was found, but as there were two Collier brothers playing in the game, the vote wasn't counted. To remedy the situation for the future, the rules were altered to a 3–2–1 system in 1931. The countback rule was created, providing for two players with equal votes to be separated and this system (apart from 1976–77) endured until 1981, when the countback was abolished. Finally, in 1989, retrospective medals were given out to all players who lost the award on a countback, including Hopkins
and Collier
.
Today, Judkins remains the only Brownlow Medal
list to have been dropped during the year he won the award. In addition, he is the shortest and lightest player to have won the medal, and, with the size of modern players, looks likely to remain forever so. Although a regular in a champion team, Judkins didn't garner any other major individual awards during his career.
From 1930 to 1935, Judkins formed one of the great centrelines in the game, teaming with centreman Eric Zschech
and fellow wingman Alan Geddes
. Richmond
relied heavily on stability and reliability to achieve success, and being able to select the same centreline every week helped tremendously. The trio played in four consecutive Grand Finals
together, winning premierships in 1932 and 1934. Judkins averaged 14 possessions in the four Grand Finals
. His outstanding finals effort in this period came in the 1934 semifinal against Geelong
. Judkins played a single game for Victoria
and totalled 10 finals for the club. He continued to catch the eye of the umpires
, polling well in the 1931 and 1932 Brownlow
counts when he finished equal fifth both times.
At the end of 1936, when the Tigers
missed the finals for the first time during his career, Judkins left VFL football at the age of 29. He had a brief stint in the country leagues of Victoria
as a playing coach, notably leading the strong Albury club
to the premiership in 1937. Then, he enlisted in the Second AIF
and saw action in Borneo
. After the war, he was central in establishing the VFL's thirds (Under 19) competition. Strangely, Judkins was not given life membership at Richmond
until 1962. Richmond's
three other Brownlow
winners were given this honour before they finished playing. He later coached Brighton Amateurs and was involved with junior clubs in the Sandringham area. His son Noel played in the Under 19s for Richmond
, became an administrator with the Tigers
and was later headhunted by Kevin Sheedy to oversee recruiting at Essendon
. During a long career, Noel Judkins gained a reputation as one of the best talent-spotters of the modern era.
Stan Judkins died in 1986.
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
er who played for the Richmond Football Club
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
in the Victorian Football League between 1928 and 1936. He became the first Richmond
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
player to win the game's most prestigious award, the Brownlow Medal
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
.
Judkins played his junior football as a rover for Greensborough and then moved to Northcote in the VFA for the 1926 season. Invited to Richmond
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
the following year, Judkins was forced to remain in the VFA for one more season due to clearance problems, caused by a dispute between the two competitions. Eventually, he made his way to Punt Road
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
in 1928, and he immediately became a first team regular, aged 20. He arrived at the club at the start of a golden era, and starred in the Tigers'
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
semifinal win over Carlton
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...
, but was quiet during the loss to Collingwood
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
in the Grand Final
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia to determine the Australian Football League premiership champions for that year...
three weeks later.
A diminutive man at 166 cm and 61 kg, Judkins was a typical wing player of his era. At this time, teams generally used small, pacy men with good ground skills in the position. Judkins also earned praise for his handball and evasive ability; he was a hard man to tackle.
Judkins missed the Tigers'
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
1929 finals appearance due to injury, but started the next season in blistering form, which eventually petered out. Dropped from the side five weeks before the finals, Judkins languished in the seconds, unaware he was about to make history and change the way the game would decide its best player award. In 1924, the VFL instituted the Charles Brownlow Medal
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
, to honour a recently-deceased Geelong
Geelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...
player and official. It was decided by the umpires
Umpire (Australian rules football)
An umpire is an official in the sport of Australian rules football.-Origins:Unlike many other codes of football, where the official is called a referee, in Australian Football, the officials borrow their title from the game of cricket, which is played on the same types of fields and was an...
, who gave a single vote to the player they believed to be the best afield. In 1930 the award carried little prestige – the winner was notified by mail and told to come and collect the award from the VFL office. Indeed, the concept of individual awards in a team game was only beginning to gain acceptance.
On the Wednesday after the last game of the 1930 home and away season, the votes were tallied and Judkins was tied in first place with Harry Collier
Harry Collier
Harry Collier was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League.-Playing career:Originally from Ivanhoe, Victoria, Collier played for the Collingwood Football Club, debuting in 1926...
(Collingwood
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
) and Allan Hopkins
Allan Hopkins
Allan Hopkins was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League. He started off his career with Footscray Football Club before they joined the Victorian Football League in 1925...
(Footscray) with a meagre tally of 4 votes. By comparison, the lowest previous tally to win had been 6 votes. Two nights after the counting, the umpires
Umpire (Australian rules football)
An umpire is an official in the sport of Australian rules football.-Origins:Unlike many other codes of football, where the official is called a referee, in Australian Football, the officials borrow their title from the game of cricket, which is played on the same types of fields and was an...
board (which administered the award) recommended that no medal be awarded as there was no provision for a tied result.
However, a week later, Judkins was sitting at home when his father came in to show him a copy of a newspaper that contained an article stating Judkins had won the Brownlow Medal
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
. Judkins was notified by the VFL to come and collect his prize and that was that. Judkins was more excited by the prospect of playing on the Saturday, when he had been recalled to the Richmond
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
side to take on Collingwood in the semifinal. Encouraged by the award, he played a great game, but the Tigers
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
lost a thrilling contest by three points.
It transpired that the VFL administration had over-ruled the umpires
Umpire (Australian rules football)
An umpire is an official in the sport of Australian rules football.-Origins:Unlike many other codes of football, where the official is called a referee, in Australian Football, the officials borrow their title from the game of cricket, which is played on the same types of fields and was an...
board and created a criterion that the medal should be awarded to the player who played the least number of games. Judkins' banishment to the seconds had won him the award. It has been claimed that a vote simply labelled "Collier" was found, but as there were two Collier brothers playing in the game, the vote wasn't counted. To remedy the situation for the future, the rules were altered to a 3–2–1 system in 1931. The countback rule was created, providing for two players with equal votes to be separated and this system (apart from 1976–77) endured until 1981, when the countback was abolished. Finally, in 1989, retrospective medals were given out to all players who lost the award on a countback, including Hopkins
Allan Hopkins
Allan Hopkins was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League. He started off his career with Footscray Football Club before they joined the Victorian Football League in 1925...
and Collier
Harry Collier
Harry Collier was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League.-Playing career:Originally from Ivanhoe, Victoria, Collier played for the Collingwood Football Club, debuting in 1926...
.
Today, Judkins remains the only Brownlow Medal
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
list to have been dropped during the year he won the award. In addition, he is the shortest and lightest player to have won the medal, and, with the size of modern players, looks likely to remain forever so. Although a regular in a champion team, Judkins didn't garner any other major individual awards during his career.
From 1930 to 1935, Judkins formed one of the great centrelines in the game, teaming with centreman Eric Zschech
Eric Zschech
Eric Leslie Zschech was an Australian rules footballer who played in the Victorian Football League between 1930 and 1935 for the Richmond Football Club...
and fellow wingman Alan Geddes
Alan Geddes
Alan Geddes was an Australian rules football player who played in the VFL between 1925 and 1935 for the Richmond Football Club...
. Richmond
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
relied heavily on stability and reliability to achieve success, and being able to select the same centreline every week helped tremendously. The trio played in four consecutive Grand Finals
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia to determine the Australian Football League premiership champions for that year...
together, winning premierships in 1932 and 1934. Judkins averaged 14 possessions in the four Grand Finals
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia to determine the Australian Football League premiership champions for that year...
. His outstanding finals effort in this period came in the 1934 semifinal against Geelong
Geelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...
. Judkins played a single game for Victoria
Australian rules football in Victoria, Australia
Australian rules football in Victoria, Australia dates back to the origins of both the sport and the colony in the 1850s.Victoria remains the sport's spiritual home....
and totalled 10 finals for the club. He continued to catch the eye of the umpires
Umpire (Australian rules football)
An umpire is an official in the sport of Australian rules football.-Origins:Unlike many other codes of football, where the official is called a referee, in Australian Football, the officials borrow their title from the game of cricket, which is played on the same types of fields and was an...
, polling well in the 1931 and 1932 Brownlow
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
counts when he finished equal fifth both times.
At the end of 1936, when the Tigers
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
missed the finals for the first time during his career, Judkins left VFL football at the age of 29. He had a brief stint in the country leagues of Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
as a playing coach, notably leading the strong Albury club
Albury Football Club
The Albury Football Club are an Australian rules football club which compete in the Ovens & Murray Football League.The club is based in Albury, New South Wales.Two Brownlow Medallists, Haydn Bunton senior and Denis Ryan, both started their career at Albury....
to the premiership in 1937. Then, he enlisted in the Second AIF
Second Australian Imperial Force
The Second Australian Imperial Force was the name given to the volunteer personnel of the Australian Army in World War II. Under the Defence Act , neither the part-time Militia nor the full-time Permanent Military Force could serve outside Australia or its territories unless they volunteered to...
and saw action in Borneo
Borneo campaign (1945)
The Borneo Campaign of 1945 was the last major Allied campaign in the South West Pacific Area, during World War II. In a series of amphibious assaults between 1 May and 21 July, the Australian I Corps, under General Leslie Morshead, attacked Japanese forces occupying the island. Allied naval and...
. After the war, he was central in establishing the VFL's thirds (Under 19) competition. Strangely, Judkins was not given life membership at Richmond
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
until 1962. Richmond's
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
three other Brownlow
Brownlow Medal
The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
winners were given this honour before they finished playing. He later coached Brighton Amateurs and was involved with junior clubs in the Sandringham area. His son Noel played in the Under 19s for Richmond
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
, became an administrator with the Tigers
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
and was later headhunted by Kevin Sheedy to oversee recruiting at Essendon
Essendon Football Club
The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
. During a long career, Noel Judkins gained a reputation as one of the best talent-spotters of the modern era.
Stan Judkins died in 1986.