Lion-hearted Brisbane claim second flag as GF turns into \u2018slaughter\u2019<\/a><\/p>\nSaturday\u2019s medal was presented by two-time Norm Smith winner Luke Hodge\ufeff (2008 and 2014) \u2013 a four-time premiership Hawk, and a former Lion.<\/p>\n
Hodge was one of only four players to ever win the prestigious honour more than once. That elite group now extends to five with Ashcroft – and he\u2019s the youngest in history to ever do it back-to-back (aged 21 years and 144), eclipsing\u2019s McLeod\u2019s efforts of 22 years and 53 days.<\/p>\n
Will Ashcroft celebrates his grand final goal.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
The young Lion finished with 2025 grand final with 32 disposals, 10 clearances and a goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s building an unbelievable resume,\u201d teammate Charlie Cameron praised.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo-time Norm Smith is pretty crazy. Back-to-back in a premiership year \u2013 it\u2019s unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2025 Norm Smith Medal was determined by judges Andrew McLeod (chair), Luke Hodge, Kate McCarthy, Jack Riewoldt and Adam Simpson.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s named in honour of Norm Smith who claimed a remarkable 10 premierships \u2013 four as a VFL player and six as coach for Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Zac Bailey sets unwanted 100-year first | 00:36<\/p>\n
NORM SMITH MEDAL FINAL TALLY<\/p>\n
Will Ashcroft (Brisbane Lions) \u2013 13 votes (3,3,3,2,2)<\/p>\n
Harris Andrews (Brisbane Lions) \u2013 6 votes (3,2,1)<\/p>\n
Zac Bailey (Brisbane Lions) \u2013 5 votes (2,1,1,1)<\/p>\n
Jaspa Fletcher (Brisbane Lions) \u2013 3 votes (3)<\/p>\n
Dayne Zorko (Brisbane Lions) \u2013 2 votes (2)<\/p>\n
Hugh McCluggage (Brisbane Lions) \u2013 1 vote (1)<\/p>\n
Judges voting (3,2,1)<\/p>\n
Andrew McLeod (Chair): \u2013 W.Ashcroft, Z.Bailey, H.Andrews<\/p>\n
Luke Hodge, Channel 7: \u2013 J.Fletcher, W.Ashcroft, H.McCluggage<\/p>\n
Kate McCarthy, Triple M: \u2013 H.Andrews, W.Ashcroft, Z.Bailey<\/p>\n
Jack Riewoldt, Fox Footy: \u2013 W.Ashcroft, H.Andrews, Z.Bailey<\/p>\n
Adam Simpson, SEN: \u2013 W.Ashcroft, D.Zorko, Z.Bailey<\/p>\n
NORM SMITH MEDAL STATS<\/p>\n
-Geelong\u2019s Paul Chapman is the only player to win a Norm Smith on a countback, after he and Saint Jason Gram tied with nine votes apiece in 2009.<\/p>\n
-Only four players have received the award as members of a losing team: Maurice Rioli in 1982, Gary Ablett Sr. in 1989, Nathan Buckley in 2002, and Chris Judd in 2005.<\/p>\n
-Geelong have five Norm Smith Medallists already (Gary Ablett Sr. – 1989, Steve Johnson – 2007, Paul Chapman – 2009, Jimmy Bartel – 2011, and Isaac Smith – 2022)<\/p>\n
-Brisbane have three Norm Smith Medallists in their history (Shaun Hart – 2001, Simon Black – 2003, Will Ashcroft – 2024 & 2025)<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t see the poll, click here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Ashcroft has once again been crowned the Norm Smith Medallist for best on-ground in the AFL grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1146,109787,64,63,9203,71357,112376,26521,13659,112375,1823,102517,100138,26512,24778,109802,102502,79180,112377,85,52591,45262],"class_list":{"0":"post-172434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-adam-simpson","9":"tag-andrew-mcleod","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-catherine-healey","13":"tag-chris-judd","14":"tag-final-tally","15":"tag-four-time-premiership","16":"tag-geelong-cats","17":"tag-isaac-smith","18":"tag-jack-riewoldt","19":"tag-jimmy-bartel","20":"tag-kate-mccarthy","21":"tag-luke-hodge","22":"tag-maurice-rioli","23":"tag-norm-smith-medal","24":"tag-paul-chapman","25":"tag-prestigious-honour","26":"tag-simon-black","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-steve-johnson","29":"tag-triple-m"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}