There was no award for third best and fairest in the first six years of the Copeland. In 1933, however, the club began to acknowledge those players who finished second and third, by awarding each of them a trophy named after Cecil Hearn. This continued until 1940. For 1941 and 1942, both trophies were awarded in the name of club great Bob Rush. After a number of years where third place was not acknowledged, it reappeared as the R.T. Rush Trophy in 1948 before being given its current name – after one of the club's founding fathers, former Britannia player and administrator Jack Joyce – in 1949.
However, we have recently discovered a medallion for third place, named after J J Joyce, and inscribed to Billy Libbis for 1927. It is now our belief that, when Copeland Trophies were physically awarded for the first time in 1952 (until then, winners' names had only been inscribed on an honour board), retrospective medals for second and third place were also awarded. It is not known how the Committee in 1952 decided on who would receive the podium medals from 1927-32, because they were not announced in the annual reports of the time. But because they were not announced contemporaneously, or given a name, the 1952 Committee seems to have given the retrospective medals the name then in place (the J J Joyce Trophy). Confusing? Yes. We will continue to search for other evidence of who might have finished second and third between 1927 and 32.
