1990 Brownlow Medal

It was an emotional occasion for Liberatore, whose triumph capped off a great year for the Footscray Football Club, which barely 11 months prior had survived an attempted merger with Fitzroy. The tiny rover had struggled to break into Footscray's senior team over the previous three seasons, started the year unsure of his place after being overlooked for a night game during the pre-season and contemplated nominating for the AFL Draft.[3] After earning best-on-ground votes from the umpires in the Round 5 and 6 wins over Carlton and Fitzroy respectively, Liberatore led the medal count and managed to hold it for the remainder of the evening, enduring an agonizing wait after not polling in the final three games of the season due to a knee injury in Round 19.[4] Collingwood winger and runner-up in the count Graham Wright finished strongly with two best-on-ground votes in Rounds 21 and 22, but fell one vote short of tying for the award, while third-placed Carlton full-back Stephen Silvagni, two votes behind Liberatore at the end of Round 19, did not gain any further votes in the final three rounds. Liberatore thus became the first VFL/AFL footballer to have won the League best and fairest award at three levels, having previously won the Morrish Medal (for the Under 19s competition) in 1984 and the Gardiner Medal twice (for the Reserves competition) in 1986 and 1988.[4]

Upon accepting the award, Liberatore thanked the club president, Peter Gordon, for saving the club, coach Terry Wheeler for the opportunity to play and for believing in him, and thanked his parents and fiancée.[3] He also spoke of how persistence and being given a chance had helped him cement his place in the team:

I always believed that anything you do in life, you persevere and give it all you got. ... Through the love of Footscray, I decided I would stick at it. ... It goes to show that playing at that level, sometimes when the young players get an opportunity, they really play well and that's what happened to me.[3]

• If a number is vacant, it indicates that the player missed that particular game.
• Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the player led/were equal leader in the Brownlow Medal count at the end of that round.
• Players with asterisks next to names indicates ineligibility to win the award due to suspension from the Tribunal.

• 1990 Brownlow Medal Tony Liberatore on YouTube