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2009 Brownlow Medalist, Gary Ablett, of Geelong poses for the media with his partner Lauren Phillips during the AFL Brownlow Medal Dinner at the Crown Palladium. Slattery Images
The AFL’s might over the Australian sporting landscape is down to nights like the Brownlow. Not the glamour of the WAGS or intrigue of who will claim the medal, but rather the tradition of the event.
The Monday night Brownlow ceremony is the perfect lead-in to the biggest week of the AFL year: the traditional warm up with the AFL media machine launching into high gear as Saturday nears.
And the Brownlow ceremony tends to live up to the occasion, with plenty of drama, intrigue and schmalz.
It may be boring for some, but it’s oddly compelling for many. The countdown has AFL-mad States on the edge of their seats as Round 22 approaches.
And it was fitting that Gary Ablett, the favourite of the past few seasons, scored his first Brownlow and confirmed his place as the undisputed greatest player in the competition.
Some argue that being voted on by the umpires diminishes the Brownlow, pointing to the inconsistency from favourites to actual results. Ablett’s win eases the criticism of the Brownlow, for twelve months at least.
But it is this unpredictability that makes it compulsive viewing for AFL fans.
Looking at his statistics over the season, there should have been no doubting Ablett as the clear Brownlow favourite. Yet names such Goodes, Swan, and Riewoldt continued to be thrown up as contenders.
Should the umpires be the judges of the best and fairest?
There’s no doubting their impartiality, and at least they’re the most apt judges of the ‘best’ component in the Brownlow criteria.
The league’s Most Valuable Player award, voted by the players, has been discussed as the long-term successor as the most prestigious award. But it has no chance of toppling the history and importance of the Brownlow, an award that dates back to 1924.
The MVP award has proven to be a more consistent representation of player form in its shorter history, but there is always the question of players favouring their mates or settling scores in their votes.
The same could apply for the coaches.
It’s the mystery of what the umpires decide that makes the Brownlow as intriguing as it is prestigious.
What a shame, therefore, that Brownlow night and the count itself has been hijacked, for want of a better word, by the media’s creation and obsession of the razzmatazz of vacuous WAGS in their fancy rags.
The night shouldn’t be about the ladies, as the media machine would have you believe, but rather honouring the efforts of the best and fairest players of the AFL season.
Turning the ceremony into yet another sad vehicle for wannabe celebrities will hopefully not diminish what the night is all about.
Where is WAG-banisher Fabio Capello when you need him?
Thankfully the enduring image of the 2009 count will be of an emotional Gary Ablett, definitively stepping out of his father’s shadow and confirming his greatness.
That is the power of the Brownlow and why it matters.