With the grand finalists set, attention now turns to football’s night of nights.
The game’s top individual honour is set be decided at Monday night’s Brownlow Medal in what looms as one of the most intriguing counts in recent memory.
Below is everything you need to know about the 2023 Brownlow Medal.
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‘I’ve never seen the rooms like that!’ | 11:14
WHEN IS THE BROWNLOW MEDAL?
The Brownlow Medal will be held on Monday September 25, the traditional slot at the start of the week leading into the grand final.
Coverage will kick off from 7.30pm (AEST), with the count to then get under way from 8pm.
WHERE IS THE BROWNLOW MEDAL HELD?
The Brownlow Medal count will be held at Crown Casino in Melbourne.
It remains in Victoria despite in 2020 being moved to Perth due to the pandemic, while in 2020 it was split across TV studios in multiple cities.
HOW CAN I FOLLOW THE BROWNLOW MEDAL COUNT?
All coverage of the event can be followed on Foxfooty.com.au. It’ll include the red carpet, every vote in our live Brownlow Tracker, all the news – including Goal of the Year and Mark of the Year winners – plus the wash-up the following morning.
You can tune into the Brownlow Medal on Channel 7 from 7.30pm (AEST) in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and stream it on 7Plus or via the AFL Live app.
Sydney and Brisbane viewers have in the past have watched it on 7Mate.
Epic final scenes as Pies land GF spot | 00:48
HOW IS THE BROWNLOW MEDAL DECIDED?
Umpires vote 3-2-1 for the best and fairest players in every match. The player who receives the most votes at the end of the home and away season is declared the winner.
Should two or more players lead the count in a tie, multiple winners are crowned.
Players who were suspended are deemed ineligible.
HOW MANY VOTES DO YOU NEED TO WIN THE BROWNLOW?
Excluding last year (Patrick Cripps, 29 votes), players have needed to poll 30-plus votes to take out ‘Charlie’ in recent seasons.
Since 2015, the winner has averaged 32 votes, with Tom Mitchell in 2018 (28 votes) the only other victor in that period to poll under 30 votes.
It includes Lachie Neale polling 31 votes in the Covid-19 shortened season, which on average (1.8 votes per game), was the most of any player and would’ve pushed 40 votes in a regular campaign.
Both Dustin Martin (2017) and Ollie Wines (2021) have set the record for the most votes in a season under the current system with 36.
Four player in 2021 remarkably polled over 30 votes – winner Wines plus Marcus Bontempelli (33), Clayton Oliver (31) and Sam Walsh (30).
WHO ARE THE BROWNLOW MEDAL FAVOURITES?
This is where it gets interesting.
The 2023 race shapes as a rare one where there’s no clear favourite, but a pool of four players widely seen as having relatively even prospects.
It’s led by two of the game’s superstars – Collingwood’s Nick Daicos and Western Bulldogs’ Marcus Bontempelli.
Second-year stud Daicos was seen as the runaway winner for the majority of 2023 amid his epic rise to superstardom before a knee injury in Round 21 caused him to miss the final three regular season matches.
It’s likely Daicos will lead the count at this stage and would need to hold off the chasing pack below. Should that happen, he’d be the first ever player to win the Brownlow in his second season since Essendon’s Dick Reynolds back in 1934.
Another Bomber, Gavin Wanganeen was younger than Daicos when he won the 1993 Brownlow aged 19.
The Pies son of a gun would however become the eighth player to win the coveted award at the age of 20 or younger.
Working in Daicos’ favour is the success of the reigning premier Collingwood, with winning teams traditionally polling more votes.
Bontempelli is essentially equal favourite with Daicos after a career-best season from the Bulldogs skipper. He became the hot favourite after Daicos went down with injury, but like the Dogs, Bontempelli didn’t finish the season particularly strong in those games Daicos missed.
Pies facing injury dilemma ahead of GF | 01:40
The 27-year old did however go on an epic run from the early to middle parts of the season and he mightn’t be as far behind Daicos as some have predicted.
Bontempelli also took out this year’s Leigh Matthews Trophy for the game’s Most Valuable Player, as voted by players.
As for his Brownlow chances, it might all come down to that final round when the Dogs took down Geelong at GMHBA Stadium, where Adam Treloar and Tom Liberatore starred alongside Bontempelli and Isaac Smith had a huge night out in his farewell match.
Bontempelli finished runner-up to Wines in 2021.
Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters is also firmly in the mix for his own brilliant breakout season to become one of the game’s genuine superstars.
It saw Butters claim the AFL Coaches Association Player of the Year award, Channel 9’s Sunday Footy Show’s Lou Richards Medal and his first All-Australian blazer in the process.
He might however share votes with star midfield partner Connor Rozee, who, of the four frontrunners, is the only teammate expected to poll prominently on the night.
‘We’ll sit with the disappointment’ | 07:32
Rounding out the favourites is Melbourne’s Christian Petracca, who finished equal-third in 2020 and has polled 23 votes in each of the last two seasons.
Working in Petracca’s favour this year is Clayton Oliver missing 10 games in the second half of the season, where you suspect Petracca should pick up some extra votes including producing some big performances.
Oliver has polled 31 votes and 25 votes in the last two seasons respectively.
After the above quartet, 2020 winner and Brisbane’s Lachie Neale, who was last year’s favourite when he eventually came runner-up to Patrick Cripps last year by a single vote, is seen as the next best chance.
A prominent vote-getter over the years, it wouldn’t be a shock if Neale took out the award, though his season wasn’t quite as consistent as the other favourites including a slow start to the campaign.
And ultimately, Neale has his eyes on a bigger prize next week.
BROWNLOW MEDAL WINNER ODDS
Marcus Bontempelli (Western Bulldogs) $2.75
Nick Daicos (Collingwood) $2.75
Zak Butters (Port Adelaide) $5
Christian Petracca (Melbourne) $6.50
Lachie Neale (Brisbane) $13
Errol Gulden (Sydney) $51
Tim Taranto (Richmond) $51
Connor Rozee (Port Adelaide) $67
Jordan Dawson (Adelaide) $67
Others available
All odds via Pointsbet, correct as of 12pm Sunday
WHO’S INVITED TO THE BROWNLOW MEDAL COUNT?
TBA
“If he’s BALD, that’s a GOAL!” | 00:33
WHICH PLAYERS ARE INELIGIBLE? (When they became ineligible)
Adelaide
Shane McAdam (Round 1), Luke Pedlar (Round 3), Josh Rachele (Round 18)
Brisbane
Dayne Zorko (Round 11), Lincoln McCarthy (Round 16)
Carlton
Blake Acres (Round 3), Jesse Motlop (Round 6), Matthew Cottrell (Round 14), Jordan Boyd (Round 18),
Collingwood
Taylor Adams (Round 5), Jordan De Goey (Round 12), Beau McCreery (Round 23)
Essendon
Zach Merrett (Round 5), Sam Durham (Round 7), Andrew Phillips (Round 17)
Fremantle
Matthew Johnson (Round 7), Jaeger O‘Meara (Round 11), Caleb Serong (Round 17)
Geelong
Gary Rohan (Round 4), Brad Close (Round 8), Mitch Duncan (Round 23)
Gold Coast
Touk Miller (Round 20)
GWS
Tom Green (Round 5), Callan Ward (Round 6), Lachie Whitfield (Round 14), Nick Haynes (Round 17), Toby Bedford (Round 21), Brent Daniels (Round 21)
Hawthorn
Will Day (Round 4), Tyler Brockman (Round 8), James Sicily (Round 11, 13), Ned Reeves (Round 19)
Melbourne
Kysaiah Pickett (Round 1), Tom Sparrow (Round 9), Lachie Hunter (Round 10), James Harmes (Round 12)
North Melbourne
Jy Simpkin (Round 2), Griffin Logue (Round 3), Aiden Corr (Round 9)
Port Adelaide
Ryan Burton (Round 2), Tom Jonas (Round 6, 10), Junior Rioli (Round 8, Round 19)
Richmond
Nathan Broad (Round 2), Rhyan Mansell (Round 13), Toby Nankervis (Round 17)
St Kilda
Anthony Caminiti (Round 5)
Sydney
Lance Franklin (Round 1), Luke Parker (Round 11), Sam Wicks (Round 14), Braeden Campbell (Round 21)
West Coast
Sam Petrevski-Seton (Round 7, Round 19), Liam Duggan (Round 12), Elliot Yeo (Round 23)
Western Bulldogs
Taylor Duryea (Round 23)
‘We’ll sit with the disappointment’ | 07:32
WHO ARE THE PREVIOUS WINNERS?
2010: Chris Judd (Carlton) [30 votes]
2011: Dane Swan (Collingwood) [34 votes]
2012: Trent Cotchin (Richmond) and Sam Mitchell (Hawthorn) [26 votes] (Jobe Watson 30 votes stripped of medal)
2013: Gary Ablett (Gold Coast) [28 votes]
2014: Matt Priddis (West Coast) [26 votes]
2015: Nat Fyfe (Fremantle) [31 votes]
2016: Patrick Dangerfield (Geelong) [35 votes]
2017: Dustin Martin (Richmond) [36 votes]
2018: Tom Mitchell (Hawthorn) [28 votes]
2019: Nat Fyfe (Fremantle) [33 votes]
2020: Lachie Neale (Brisbane Lions) [31 votes, shortened season]
2021: Ollie Wines (Port Adelaide) [36 votes]
2022: Patrick Cripps (Carlton) [29 votes]
