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The AFL has announced that Trent Cotchin and Sam Mitchell will now be recognised as the joint winners of the 2012 Brownlow Medal, after retrospectively ruling that Jobe Watson was ineligible for the award.
Watson made the decision to hand back the award on Friday last week, and the AFL commission met earlier today to reach a final decision on what the fate of the medal would be.
In the 2012 count Watson recorded a total of 30 votes, while Mitchell and Cotchin were equal second in terms of votes with 26 each.
Sam Mitchell has recorded the equal-second-most career Brownlow votes in the history of the award and before today was the player with the most career votes to have never won the award.
He is a five-time Hawthorn best-and-fairest winner, three-time All-Australian, and four-time AFL premiership player.
Mitchell becomes the fifth Hawthorn player to win the league’s highest honour, alongside Col Austen, Robert DiPierdomenico, John Platten and Shane Crawford.
Due to some poor timing however the Hawks won’t be able to celebrate Mitchell’s Brownlow in quite the way they would have liked to, as the club legend was traded to the West Coast Eagles in October.
It will make the Eagles’ 2017 side the first to have two Brownlow Medallists in it since Watson and Adam Cooney for Essendon in 2015 – or Jimmy Bartel and Gary Ablett junior for Geelong in 2010 before that.
Trent Cotchin is a three-time Richmond best-and-fairest winner and was All-Australian in 2012.
He becomes the fifth Richmond player to win the Brownlow Medal, longside Stan Judkins, Bill Morris, Roy Wright (twice, in 1952 and 1954), and Ian Stewart.
Mitchell and Cotchin will receive their medals at a ceremony to be held in December.
“The Brownlow Medal is the most prestigious individual award in our game, and celebrates the competition’s best and fairest player,” said AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick.
“In stepping forward and handing back the medal, Jobe Watson demonstrated a willingness to consider the game beyond his own personal situation. At all times, Jobe has carried himself with dignity and remained true to the values that he has based his life around.
“The impact of this decision on him and his family is one of great sadness for the game.
“Essendon has apologised to Jobe and his family for the position in which they have placed their club champion.
“I wish to repeat the words I said in January earlier this year when the 34 past and present Essendon players were found guilty by the Court of Arbitration of Sport. The program at the Essendon football club in 2012 was a stain on our game – and it has had a terrible impact on the players and the Essendon football club.
“We can all agree that the players should never have been subject to this program, and they have suffered a big penalty for the trust they showed in people who have let them down.
“What occurred at Essendon in 2012 has struck at the very heart of our game – the integrity of the competition, and the health and safety of the players.”
Fitzpatrick said Cotchin and Mitchell were deserving winners, despite the unusual manner of their victory.
“As the highest-placed eligible vote-getters, Sam Mitchell and Trent Cotchin were formally declared the joint winners of the 2012 Brownlow Medal.
“Sam and Trent are deserving Brownlow Medallists for the quality of their play in 2012, and the Commission wishes to pass on the congratulations of the entire football community for their performances.”