With Collingwood's best and fairest to be announced on Friday night at the Crown Palladium, we take a look at the contenders for the Copeland Trophy for season 2009.

Collingwood’s 2009 season highlighted the wealth and depth of the club’s talented youngsters which could take the Magpies to new heights next year.  The club used 37 players this year (including four debutants), which tied for the highest of any club that made the top eight (Carlton used 37). 

The club produced three All-Australians including Dane Swan, Leon Davis and Nick Maxwell, the most since the 1990 premiership year (six).

If the Brownlow voting results are anything to go by, this year’s Copeland Trophy race is wide open.

Most pundits were surprised Scott Pendlebury polled the highest number of votes for the club with 13 while Swan, who was believed to be a favourite for the medal, finished the night with 12.

The Copeland Trophy voting system allocates one vote to each player for every match played and up to 20 additional votes per game to be dispersed among the best players as judged by the Collingwood Match Committee. 

Swan, who won last year’s Copeland Trophy with 53 votes, could be in line to become the 13th Magpie to win back to back Trophies, the first since James Clement won in 2004 and 2005.  A remarkable 2009 season saw Swan average 31 disposals in 25 games with 70.4% efficiency (2.1% higher than last year when he averaged 24 disposals).

Having played four less matches than Swan, Pendlebury is another contender for Friday night having proven a Copeland vote getter in previous seasons (2007 finished second and third in 2008).  The 21-year-old has averaged career high numbers in disposals (25.8) and clearances (4.3). 

Also in the mix will be the Magpie defensive group which was the second hardest backline to score against in the home-and-away season only behind St Kilda.   Harry O’Brien, Nick Maxwell, Simon Prestigiacomo and Heath Shaw could all feature prominently throughout the night. 

Alan Didak (2006) and Travis Cloke (2007) are the only two current Magpies besides Swan who have taken home the prestigious honour.  Didak, who tied with Swan in this year’s Brownlow, has missed five matches this season through injury and will need to play catch up for most of the night.  Cloke featured in 22 matches this year and produced similar numbers to his wonderful 2007 season.

The Friday night event will be covered comprehensively by Collingwoodfc.com.au from the Crown Palladium in Melbourne.  Log on at 7.30 pm on October 2nd to follow the live chat (click here to receive a reminder) and watch the live video stream when the top-five is announced by Brian Taylor later in the night.

Click here to view the list of past winners of the coveted Trophy.

The Copeland Trophy voting system
1. Each player is allocated one vote for each game in which he is selected to represent the Collingwood Football Club.

2. Up to 20 votes per game can be allocated to the best players as judged by the Collingwood Match Committee. Votes are awarded based on the average vote of all members of the Match Committee.

3. In the event that two or more players finish with the same number of votes then the player who has played in the least amount of games takes the higher position. If these players have played the same number of games then the player who has polled the greater number of “high value” votes will take the higher position.