What you might not know about the AFL’s Brownlow Medal
- Written by: Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania
The Brownlow Medal is the most prestigious individual award in the Australian Football League (AFL).
It has been awarded to the fairest and best player in the AFL – and previously, the Victorian Football League (VFL) – every year since 1924, except for a break (1942–45) because of the second world war.
The vote count is held on the Monday evening before the Grand Final each year.
Why is it called the Brownlow Medal?
The medal is named after Charles Brownlow (1861–1924). He was an “outstanding footballer” and premiership captain for Geelong, who was admired nationally for his sense of fair play.
He was also a highly respected administrator for more than 40 years, serving in various roles such as Geelong secretary, umpires committee chairman and VFL president.
He is credited with helping to introduce important developments that are still recognisable in modern football, such as boundary umpires, a tribunal, official timekeeping system and numbers on players’ jumpers.
The early days of the Brownlow Medal
The first Brownlow Medal (1924) was won by Geelong player Edward “Carji” Greeves, who also came second in 1925, 1926 and 1928.
Including Greeves, 90 different players have won the Brownlow Medal.
Thirteen players have won it twice and four players have won it three times: Haydn Bunton Sr. (Fitzroy), Dick Reynolds (Essendon), Bob Skilton (South Melbourne) and Ian Stewart (St Kilda/Richmond).
If a player is suspended during the season they are ineligible, even if they receive the highest number of votes.
North Melbourne’s Corey McKernan (1996-equal most votes) and Chris Grant (1997-most votes) from the Western Bulldogs both missed out on a Brownlow because of suspension. Jobe Watson also lost his 2012 Brownlow because of Essendon’s supplement saga.
Brownlow Medal voting
Similar awards in rugby union, rugby league and soccer are commonly voted on by journalists, players and ex-players.
However, the Brownlow is decided by the umpires, who allocate votes to the top three players in each game during the regular season. Three votes are awarded to the best in a game, two votes to the second best, and one vote to the third best.
This voting system has been used for most Brownlow Medal counts. However, there have been different voting systems for short periods in the past:
From 1924 to 1930, only one vote was given in each game. This was changed to the current 3–2–1 system after the 1930 season when three players tied for first and another eight players tied for fourth.
From 1976 to 1977, both field umpires individually awarded 3–2–1 votes. This system was abandoned in 1978 and the two (now four) field umpires agree on a single set of 3–2–1 votes.
The votes are kept secret until the end of the season, when they are announced and added up. The player with the highest number of votes wins, and there can be joint winners if players have the same number of votes.
Patrick Cripps (Carlton) has the record for most votes in a season in the history of the Brownlow’s 3–2–1 system with 45 in 2024. This was more votes than the entire North Melbourne (42), West Coast (30) and Richmond (19) teams received.
Gary Ablett Jr (Geelong/Gold Coast) has the most career votes (262). Patrick Dangerfield (Adelaide/Geelong) has the most career votes of current players (251).
So, who is likely to win the Brownlow this year?
The 2025 contenders and pretenders
The AFL’s Brownlow predictor is projecting a win for Adelaide captain Jordan Dawson.
If he did, he would be just the second Crow, after Mark Ricciuto in 2003.
The South Melbourne/Sydney Swans have the most Brownlow medallists (14) of any club.
Dawson would be the tenth club captain to win in the past 25 years.
Since 2008, every Brownlow medallist has finished inside the league’s top six for contested possessions, making it a possible marker of success. However, Dawson sits 34th, well outside that range.
Greater Western Sydney midfielder Tom Green led the competition in contested possessions this year. If he wins he will be the first Brownlow medallist for the club, which entered the league in 2012.
There are several other interesting stories that could emerge from the AFL Predictor’s top ten.
Gold Coast has two players (Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell) in the top ten. If they finished first and second, it would be just the third time this has ever happened, following players from Melbourne (1926) and West Coast (2005).
The first Indigenous player to win the Brownlow Medal was Gavin Wanganeen (Essendon) in 1993. If his nephew Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (St Kilda) is victorious this year, he will be just the third Indigenous player to win, following Wanganeen and Adam Goodes (Sydney).
In 2003, Goodes, the All-Australian ruckman, shared the Brownlow in a three-way tie.
Since then, every winner has been a midfielder or midfielder-forward.
This dominance was on full display in 2024, where the top ten vote-getters were all midfielders, collectively accounting for 24% of the total votes.
Melbourne captain Max Gawn is the only ruckman in the 2025 top ten predictors, and while a win would stop two decades of midfield dominance, his spot in the top six for contested possessions keeps him within other winning trends.
Players such as Nick Daicos (Collingwood), Bailey Smith (Geelong) and Hugh McCluggage (Brisbane) also have the chance to become just the ninth player to win a Brownlow Medal and a premiership in the same year. The last player to do this was Dustin Martin (Richmond) in 2017.
Authors: Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania
Read more https://theconversation.com/what-you-might-not-know-about-the-afls-brownlow-medal-264485
