What Is the Sandover Medal? Inside the WAFL's Highest Individual Honour
Summary: This explainer covers what the Sandover Medal is, how the 2026 count was run, who the key men's and women's contenders were, and what remains unconfirmed about the result.
The Sandover Medal is the West Australian Football League's highest individual prize. It is awarded at a formal count rather than a simple presentation. In 2026, that count took place on Monday 14 September at the Crown Palladium Ballroom in Burswood, with Sport FM broadcasting every vote from both the Sandover Medal and the Dhara Kerr Medal live from 6pm.
The format matters. Instead of a single winner being announced, the evening works through the votes. That makes the night a season-long review in public: club by club, the leading players climb the table as the count goes on.
Two men's storylines stood out before the 2026 count. Fremantle-listed Peel player Jeremy Sharp was in the mix after a strong season. Charlie Constable, the reigning Sandover Medallist, was chasing back-to-back medals. Sport FM also noted that a surprise from left field could not be ruled out.
The women's count had a clearer favourite. Swan Districts' Jaime Henry had been tipped to win the Dhara Kerr Medal, and she delivered. The West Australian reported that Henry smashed records to win her first Dhara Kerr Medal. The exact size of the record-breaking margin is not stated in the available reporting.
The night carried extra significance because it opened the biggest week on the WAFL calendar. The grand final was set for Sunday 20 September, six days after the medal count. WA Football, the state's governing body, published a club-by-club guide to the Sandover Medal ahead of the broadcast, underlining how much attention the award draws.
What the available material does not confirm is the Sandover Medal winner. The build-up focused on Sharp and Constable, but no post-count result for the men's medal appears in the supplied reporting. That leaves a gap between the hype around the 2026 count and the official outcome. The Sandover Medal itself, however, remains what the night is built around: a public reckoning of the WAFL's best season, decided vote by vote.