While I am no Collingwood fan I love the way Dane Swan plays, he reminds me of a country footballer with his tatts, solid build and when not playing football, he would fit nicely on a building site. Congratulations to Dane Swan who was favourite last year and Chris Judd won it – this year Chris was favourite and Dane won it. That and the almost win by Sam Mitchell will raise a lot of questions and conversations in the next few days.

Dane Swan wins his first Brownlow Medal after being favourite last year.

As I was following the Brownlow Medal/ Trophy on the AFL website and through the radio, a few things caught my attention which I will discuss below. If you notice anything else or have your own musings from the night, please add them to the comments below.

The high amount of votes: Nick Dal Santo polled 28 votes and in most years he would have won the award. Also 8 players had polled over 20 votes and another 10 players polled between 15 and 19. Dane Swan won the most polled votes in a year since the 3-2-1 polling method has been in use. I think of 1994 where Peter Matera polled 28 and also missed out.

Sam Mitchell: How dumb is it that his captain has to hope and wish that Sam Mitchell does not poll anymore votes? He must’ve rubbed the right genie as Luke polled a few 3 votes and Sam did not poll anymore. So do we need to change the medal from Fairest and Best to just Best? Personally I think we leave it as it is – just because Jeff Kennett has made noise does not mean we change tradition for an ex-club president.

The issue is not the rule but the idiots in the match Review Panel.

The Future: Every year you get the same players polling well in Chris Judd, Simon Black, Nick Dal Santo etc but this year we got to see the future in Tom Rockliff, Marc Murphy, Nathan Fyfe, Andrew Swallow, Trent Cotchin, Dustin Martin and Luke Shuey all catching the eye of the umpires. I expect a few of these to become high vote pollers in the future.

To Win a Brownlow you need to be a stand out in your Team: Chris Judd was an un-backable favourite yet could only poll 23 votes when last year he polled 28 and won. Was the difference the umpires or the fact that in 2011, Carlton are a more even side? Marc Murphy, Bryce Gibbs and Mitch Robinson have all had their best years and between them they polled 40 votes. If you look at Collingwoods Brownlow votes tracker, they had four players polling over 10 votes (including Swan and Pendlebury) but had another ten players only taking 30 votes from Swan and Pendlebury.

However if your the standout player in the team you will gather more votes. This year the  best examples were Matthew Boyd (24 votes) and Gary Ablett (23).

The Umpires Prefer Consistency than a Few Flashy Individual Acts: A few have said Nic Naitanui will win a Brownlow in the next few years however even though he had his best year and had more highlights than others he did NOT poll one vote in 2011. Other flashy players like Leon Davis, Chris Yarren, Daniel Wells, Eddie Betts, Stephen Milne and Robert Murphy all failed to score more than 5 votes this year.

Does a Brownlow = a Premiership? I have a mate who is a Collingwood supporter and straight away he texted me about the Brownlow equals a premiership but does it?

Since 1980: Only Robert DiPierdomenico (1986), Gavin Wanganeen (1993), Simon Black (2001), Jason Akermanis (2002), Jimmy Bartel (2007) and Gary Ablett jnr (2009) have won a Brownlow and a premiership in the same year.

Be Sociable, Share!

•