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Collingwood star Dane Swan wrote his name into the history books last night, claiming his first Brownlow Medal with a whopping 34 votes. It was the highest tally of any winner since the 3-2-1 voting system was introduced.
He was victorious ahead of Hawthorn’s Sam Mitchell, who was ineligible to win the award but at one stage genuinely looked like producing another Chris Grant-Corey McKernan moment.
St Kilda’s Nick Dal Santo had a surprise 28 votes to come in second or third – depending on who you talk to – while fellow Pie Scott Pendlebury tied with Bulldog Matthew Boyd on 24 votes.
The favourite, Chris Judd, along with Gary Ablett, were behind them on 23.
It was a Brownlow count unlike few others in that there were a total of eight players who polled in the 20s and the list of contenders stayed lengthy deep into the evening.
In the end, though, Swan came home too strongly. After returning from his mid-season trip to Arizona, he accumulated votes in nine of his next ten games. In this same period, votes dried up for teammate Pendlebury.
It was this run that would make a mockery of Seven’s decision to highlight Australian sports icons who succeeded in threes in its introduction.
The choice to show Glen Boss (winner of three Melbourne Cups with Makybe Diva), John Newcombe (winner of three Wimbledon titles) and Leigh Matthews (coach of three flags with Brisbane) pre-count was a direct reference to the belief that one of Judd or Adam Goodes would win their third Brownlow.
Neither got all that close, to be honest.
At any rate, it was that ten-game stretch that won Swan the Brownlow last night. What enabled him to break the vote-winning record in the process, meanwhile, can be attributed to something else entirely.
Surprisingly, Collingwood had only four players poll more than four votes last night.
For a team that won 20 games, that’s a remarkable statistic. As a comparison, Geelong (with one less win) had twice as many get over four votes. Hawthorn (with two less wins) had six players over that mark. Carlton – and this might explain a lot, too – had seven.
So, while a lot of pre-count logic had Pendlebury and Swan taking votes off each other, in the end both players benefitted by there being a lack of vote-takers further down the batting order.
That Swan was only contending with three other regular vote winners at his club enabled him to poll an even higher number of votes than he otherwise would.
It was this same principal that drove Dal Santo’s big count. With Lenny Hayes missing the entire season and Nick Riewoldt having an off year, Nicky Dal – like Swan – was contending with only two or three teammates who could be considered regular vote winners.
The end result? The second-highest tally by a St Kilda player in Brownlow history.
The Brownlow can be problematic in that it’s the game’s highest individual honour yet quirky factors, such as the number of teammates polling strongly, can be such a huge factor. The irony is that Swan was probably more deserving of the game’s highest individual honour last year, whereas Judd’s season this year was better than his last.
But it is what it is.
Swan was rewarded for a big year last night and, given he had to fly half-way across the world mid-season to get himself back to full fitness and still managed to get the result he did, he is definitely still worthy of praise.
It has to be said, once again, footy’s night of nights did not disappoint.