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The annual Brownlow Medal presentation is not just an award night for the best and fairest player of the season, but a celebration of the game’s best players throughout their careers.
The Brownlow Medal has had very few changes in the 80 years since its inception.
Originally the field umpire awarded one vote to the best player on the ground, and when Carji Greeves was judged the 1924 winner with seven votes. In 1930 three players tied for first, so the voting was changed to 3-2-1 the following year and has remained essentially the same since.
Over the years, players like Scott West continually miss out on the major prize despite attracting votes every season. I’ve long felt that the one thing missing is proper recognition for this type of player, especially when they have accumulated over 100 votes over a career.
There are currently 91 players in the Brownlow’s 100 club, with four of them in having tallied 200: Gary Dempsey (246), Robert Harvey (215), Chris Judd 202 and Leigh Matthews (both 202).
The only issue in recognising these players would be in the case of those who played in the 1976-77 seasons in which both field umpires voted. Do their current votes stand, or are they cut in half for those two years?
If this was the case, Leigh Matthews would not be in the 200 club, while Bruce Doull, Michael Tuck, Sam Newman and Gary Hardemann would miss out on the 100 club. Also missing out would be the Brownlow winners in those two years, Graeme Teasdale and Graham Moss respectively.
Players like Scott West, whose 175 career votes history will quickly forget, will get due recognition and other forgotten greats such as Gary Wilson (161) and Robert Flower (150) will be recognised for their careers despite not tasting premiership glory.
The milestone award has merit and would be an added bonus on presentation night, especially if they focused on non-winners such as Harold Bray, the St Kilda centre who polled 106 votes from 121 games, with the inductees presented by 100-plus greats such as Kevin Bartlett (160).
It’s possible that Gary Ablett Jr (187 votes) will be in the 200 club this year, with Sam Mitchell (170) and Dane Swan (164) next in line.
For the record, Gary Ablett Sr polled exactly 100 career votes.
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