Tom Mitchell entered the 2018 Brownlow Medal as the short-priced favourite and the bookmakers turned out to be correct, as the Hawk took the medal home with 28 votes.
For most of the night it was a close two-horse race between Mitchell and Collingwood’s Steele Sidebottom, and the two swapped or even shared lead on several occasions.
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However a hot patch of form late in the season saw Mitchell race ahead to take an unbeatable lead with two rounds remaining.
Mitchell, having averaged 35 disposals and eight clearances for the season, was undoubtedly a deserving winner.
This year he set a record for total disposals across an AFL season, and recorded 40 or more disposals eleven times, and 50 or more twice.
Angus Brayshaw was something of a surprise to round out the podium. After starting the season outside Melbourne’s best 22, his excellent year saw him accrue 21 votes and finish third.
Two of Mitchell’s biggest pre-count competitors in Patrick Cripps and Max Gawn filled out the top five, level on 20 votes apiece.
While Mitchell snagged the medal, Gary Ablett achieved a record which won’t make as many headlines but may ultimately prove more historic.
14 votes brought Ablett to a total of 248 career Brownlow votes, and put him ahead of Footscray and North Melbourne legend Gary Dempsey as the VFL/AFL’s all-time leading vote-getter.
Ablett has by far the most career votes of any active player in the league, with Joel Selwood (195) the next best.
Selwood’s 14 votes took him ahead of Brent Harvey into the seventh-most career votes in history of any player, and he’s behind only Leigh Matthews now in terms of the most career votes by a player to have not actually won the medal itself.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Brownlow night without a bit of humour as well, which was unexpectedly found in the montage of retiring players.
Those running the show accidentally celebrated the retirement of Gold Coast’s Michael Rischitelli, which would’ve been news to him given he signed on for 2019 last month.
Perhaps they were thinking of teammate Matt Rosa instead – oops.
Jack Higgins gave us a chuckle also telling us his heart was beating ‘a million minutes a second’ when he won goal of the year, while Isaac Heeney took home mark of the year.
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Now that was a quick change of mind!
