Mathew Inkson

What the Brownlow Medal Isn't

  |   sport

So, Chris Judd has won the 2010 Chas Brownlow Trophy, and some people aren’t very happy about it. I reckon this is because they misunderstand what the award is.

The Brownlow Medal

Chris Judd is a champion and his great year has been recognised. Good, he deserves it. I’ve always been a critic of the Brownlow, though - not of the medal itself, but of what it’s held up to be. Footy followers think that it should always be awarded to the best player of the year (and they always claim know who that player is!) but there are two big problems that hinder it from happening.

Problem 1: The umpires cast the votes

The umpires have a lot to do during a match, and they spend most of it chasing after the ball. Consequently they see a lot of action from the midfielders, and may miss some of the more subtle parts of the game. They also have a different interest in the game than the average viewer, and they’re charged with finding the “fairest and best” player of the match, so they probably take things other than sheer brilliance into account. Finally, the Brownlow is an individual medal in a team game, which is always problematic. Individual skill needs to be recognised, but I think the way they execute their team plan should also be considered, and the umpire can’t possibly judge that.

Problem 2: It has a poor voting system

At the end of a game, the umpires allocate their 3-2-1 votes to three separate players. This is the case regardless of whether a match is marked by a big team effort, or whether a few players did all the work. There aren’t enough votes to go around - some good players miss out entirely, and sometimes three votes aren’t enough to measure the influence a player had on the game.

The Solution

We already have an award that does a pretty good job of finding the best player of the year, and it’s the AFL Coaches Association Champion Player of the Year. What makes this award so good is that it addresses both of the above problems. It’s voted by the coaches, who have the perfect understanding of how well each player filled their given role. They also know which opposition players caused them the most problems. Although the flashier players will usually still get more votes, this opens it up a little more to the less glamorous roles, like defenders.

It also has a reasonable scoring system. Each coach picks five players to award votes on a 5-4-3-2-1 scale. That’s a total of thirty votes between the two coaches. Sometimes the two coaches’ choices overlap, sometimes not. The high scoring system separates the best from the rest in a more definite way than the lower-scored Brownlow. It’s still not ideal, but it’s an improvement. It did a good job at ranking the best players this year:

2010 AFLCA Champion Player of the Year
114 - Dane Swan (Collingwood)
88 - Luke Hodge (Hawthorn)
80 - Joel Selwood (Geelong)
75 - Aaron Sandilands (Fremantle)
71 - Chris Judd (Carlton)
70 - Gary Ablett (Geelong)

But even the AFLCA put Judd in the top five for 2010, so those who claimed that Judd didn’t even deserve to make the All-Australian team can get stuffed.

Sad face

The stature of the Brownlow drowns out the other awards, and so everyone - the public, the media, the players - puts their faith in the Brownlow and demands that it be awarded to the clear player of the year. We don’t always see eye-to-eye on who that player is, but in 2010 everyone seems to agree that it was Dane Swan, so the knockers have been more vocal than usual. Swan did have a great year, and Brownlow night must have been a terrible let-down given that the media had already awarded it to him. But that doesn’t make Judd any less a champion: he had a great year, and he deserves his award. It’s a shame to see people attacking him with their disappointment.

The Brownlow simply isn’t the award that the public wants it to be. It awards something unique - something you can’t quite put your finger on - and it would be great if people recognised and appreciated that. It would also be great if the coaches award was elevated to a higher importance to fill the “best player” void. The TV networks wouldn’t go much on it - the count would probably be decided earlier in the evening and the winner would rarely be a surprise - but the public would get the result they want. And maybe they’d stop knocking champions for their success.

But that probably won’t happen as long as there are Collingwood supporters.

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Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

P.S I’m a Carlton supporter.
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Mathew

P.P.S. I’ve heard it said that Judd won because he’s the best player in a poor team. I can understand the rationale of this statement, but it’s a bit of a myth. Over the long history of the Brownlow most winners have come from strong teams - even great players need the support of a good team if they’re going to shine.
Jonathan's gravatar

Jonathan

I thought the purpose of the Brownlow, like the AFL, was to sell advertising. ;)
Mathew's gravatar

Mathew

Sure but only since 1959, when they first broadcast it on radio.
Joe's gravatar

Joe

An excellent post Mathew. Once again, your insight into a complex issue is refreshing and remarkably well explained. I knew I didn’t like the Brownlow medal as the Player-Of-The-Year award, but I didn’t know why. Now I do.

And are you just plugging the AFLCA because you want to be on it, coach?

Fly on the Wall

Swan was stiff to miss out (and I’m a Carlton fan), but the look of having just eaten a sh*t snadwich on McGuire’s face was almost worth all those disgraceful Sportsbet ads that crapped all over the telecast.