The Knuckey Cup is the South Adelaide Football Club’s highest individual honour awarded to the Best and Fairest League player at the conclusion of each SANFL season.

The award is named after Charles Kingscote Knuckey, a long-serving administrator and passionate supporter of the Panthers, who generously donated the inaugural Cup in 1923. This began a proud tradition that has continued annually—except during the wartime hiatus from 1941 to 1944—making it the oldest Best and Fairest award in the SANFL.

Charles Knuckey remained closely connected to the Cup, personally presenting it to the winner each year until his passing in 1988, with only illness or absence ever preventing his attendance.

The first recipient of the Knuckey Cup was none other than Dan Moriarty, one of the greatest footballers of all time and still the only man to win three consecutive Magarey Medals.

Over the past 100 years, the Knuckey Cup has been awarded to many of South Adelaide’s finest players, with names such as Frank Tully, Jim Deane, Peter Darley, Mark Naley, David Kappler, Nick Liddle, and Joel Cross etched into Club history.

Peter Darley holds the record with seven Knuckey Cup wins, followed closely by Jim Deane with six. In more recent times, Nick Liddle has claimed the honour five times, and Joel Cross has earned four.

At the conclusion of each League match, members of the Men’s Football Selection Committee allocate votes to each South Adelaide player based on their performance. Each player is assessed individually and can receive a score from 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest possible. The player with the highest total votes at season's end is awarded the Knuckey Cup.

Check out the full list of Knuckey Cup winners below.