There was no runner-up best and fairest named in the first half-dozen years of the Copeland Trophy. 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. From 1941 onwards, the award for runner-up best and fairest has carried the name of dual Premiership player and long-serving club Treasurer Bob Rush. His greatest acknowledgment was arguably his induction into the Order of the British Empire for his services to football in 1961, the only Collingwood player to ever be honoured in that manner.
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. Confusing? Yes. But it now looks like there might have been retrospective Rush medals awarded in the years 1927-32. We will continue to search for further evidence.
