The Lou Richards Medal is an annual Most Valuable Player

Most Valuable Player

In sports, a Most Valuable Player award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests...

 award for the Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

, based on votes from the Sunday Footy Show panel each week.

History

The Lou Richards Medal is named after former Collingwood

Collingwood Football Club

The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

 player, Lou Richards

Lou Richards

Lewis Thomas Charles "Lou" Richards is a retired Australian rules footballer, who played 250 games with the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League between 1941 and 1955...

. It was named in his honour due to his involvement in football, both onfield and in the media.

Voting

For each game during the home and away season, one Sunday Footy Show panelist will review the game and award votes to the best four players. These four players receive any number of votes up to ten based on the quality of their performance. Seven or eight are the most common scores given; ten votes, representing a flawless performance, is extremely rare.

List of winners

Year	Winner	Club
1993 1993 AFL season -Ladder:All teams played 20 games during the home and away season, for a total of 165. Each team also had two byes. An additional 7 games were played during the finals series.-Awards:*The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Gavin Wanganeen of ....
1994 1994 AFL season -Ladder:All teams played 22 games during the home and away season, for a total of 165. An additional 9 games were played during the finals series. It was the first season that the AFL implemented a top 8 team finals series...
1995 1995 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 1995.-Round 1:-Round 2:-Round 3:-Round 4:*This was the first ANZAC Day clash held between Collingwood and Essendon which famously ended in a draw.-Round 5:-Round 6:...
1996 1996 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 1996.See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.-Lighting Premiership:...
1997 1997 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 1997.The Port Adelaide Power joined the competition.The Brisbane Lions also joined the competition after the merger of the and ....
1998
1999
2000	Wayne Carey Wayne Carey Wayne Carey is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne and Adelaide Football Clubs in the Australian Football League ....
2001 2001 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 2001.See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.-National Cup:Port Adelaide defeated Brisbane Lions 17.9 to 3.8 in the Final....	Michael Voss Michael Voss Michael Voss is the senior coach of the Brisbane Lions Australian Football League team and a former professional Australian rules footballer....
2002 2002 AFL season -Round 2:-Round 3:-Round 4:-Round 5 :-Ladder:All teams played 22 games during the home and away season, for a total of 176...
2003 2003 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 2003.See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.-National Cup:...
2004 2004 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 2004.See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.-Wizard Home Loans Cup:The Wizard Home Loans Cup Final saw St...
2005 2005 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 2005.See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.-National Cup:...	Ben Cousins Ben Cousins Benjamin Luke "Ben" Cousins is a former Australian rules footballer, best known for his 270-game career with and in the Australian Football League ....
2006 2006 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 2006.-National Cup: 3.10.5 defeated 1.10.15 in the 2006 NAB Cup Final...	Scott West Scott West Scott West is a former Australian rules football player who played for the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League...
2007 2007 AFL season The 2007 AFL Season was the 111th season of the Australian Football League, the highest-level professional Australian rules football league in Australia...	Brent Harvey Brent Harvey Brent "Boomer" Harvey is an Australian rules footballer and the current captain of the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League ....
2008 2008 AFL season -Round 1 :-Round 2:-Round 3 :-Round 4:-Round 5:-Round 6 :-Round 7:-AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match:-Round 8:...	Brent Harvey Brent Harvey Brent "Boomer" Harvey is an Australian rules footballer and the current captain of the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League ....
2009 2009 AFL season -Round 1 :-Round 2:-Round 3 :-Round 4:-Round 5 :-Round 6:-Round 7:-Round 8:-Round 9 :-Round 10:...	Gary Ablett, Jr. Gary Ablett, Jr. Gary Ablett, Jr. is a professional Australian rules football player and current captain of the Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League ....
2010 2010 AFL season -Premiership season:The draw for the 2010 AFL Premiership Season is not a random selection of matches, but rather is planned by the AFL. It is intended to produce a balanced draw while also providing the fans and television networks with blockbuster games. In a competition with 16 teams and 22...	Dane Swan Dane Swan Dane Swan is an Australian rules footballer for Collingwood in the Australian Football League.Since 2007 Swan has emerged as one of the AFL's elite midfielders, winner of the prestigious Brownlow Medal in 2011 with a record tally of 34 votes...
2011 2011 AFL season The 2011 Australian Football League season was the 115th season of the Australian rules football competition. It was the debut year for , and was scheduled to be the only season to be played with 17 teams...	Sam Mitchell Sam Mitchell (footballer) Samuel Mitchell is an Australian rules football player for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League .- Debut season :...