Named after two of the Club’s biggest names - Kevin Murray and Roger Merrett - the medal helps recognise the ‘Club Champions’ throughout history.
Murray himself won a record nine Club Best & Fairest awards with Fitzroy, while current stars Simon Black and Jonathan Brown each have three to their name.
Take a look back at the full history of the Merrett-Murray Medal
The Club Champion voting system rewards consistency, excellence, durability and team contributions, and is appropriately decided upon by those people who know the players' assigned roles best - the coaches.
The Lions Match Committee convened every Monday morning throughout the season to give each player's performance a rating out of five - including half votes.
The maximum five votes has been given out just six times since the current voting format was introduced and is generally reserved for faultless individual performances.
Among the five-vote performances in Lions history have been Jason Akermanis’ superb effort against Geelong on a wet Gabba in 2005 which included ‘those goals’ from the boundary, and Jonathan Brown’s record-breaking 10-goal haul against Carlton at the Gabba in 2007.
This is further proof that only a truly remarkable individual performance will be rewarded with the maximum five votes.
On the other hand, players who made little or no impact on a game can receive zero votes.
This means that votes aren’t simply awarded for players who take to the field - they need to have made a noticeable contribution to earn votes.
A prime example of this was in the team’s heavy loss to the Sydney Swans at the Gabba back in Round 11 last year, when only seven votes in total were shared among the 22 players who took to the field that night.
The Match Committee do not rely on stats sheets, goal lists or popular opinion to make an assessment. Rather, they evaluate a players’ performance based on the roles they have been assigned.
For instance, a run-with player may not impact heavily on the stats sheet, yet will still be viewed favourably in the eyes of the Lions coaches for effectively nullifying his opponent’s influence on the contest.
The voting system also rewards players who feature in all or most senior matches throughout the season as it provides them with greater capacity to score votes.
Jack Redden, Daniel Merrett, Pearce Hanley, Joel Patfull and Tom Rockliff were the only five players to play in all 22 Lions matches this season, while Jed Adcock missed just one.
Find out the full details surrounding this Friday Night’s Club Champion event at the Gabba.
LIVE updates will also be available for fans on lions.com.au and Twitter throughout the night.
