25 years after becoming the first indigenous player to win the Brownlow, Gavin Wanganeen recalls his night of nights
IT’S 25 years since a non-midfielder last won the Brownlow Medal. Former Essendon and Port Adelaide premiership star Gavin Wanganeen tells how his famous night unfolded.
- The hidden battles of Tiger Jack
- Goodwin wins battle with own Demons
- Viney’s heart beats true for the red and the white
- Blight’s 50 years in footy: From tracksuit to suit
BABY-FACED Bomber Gavin Wanganeen thought he’d poll well - but not this well.
But, with his mind focused on Essendon’s grand final with Carlton five days later, the votes kept coming.
“And suddenly, midway through the count, I thought ‘I’m a bit of a chance here’,” Wanganeen recalled this week of his history-making Brownlow Medal win in 1993.
“I knew my second half of the year was really solid and the votes were stacking up for me.
“I was a young fella at 20 and didn’t really know what to do. The next thing I know my name is called out as the winner.
“It was unbelievable, a surreal feeling, and it certainly lifted my profile, especially being at a big club like Essendon.’’
On Monday, September 20, 1993, Wanganeen became the first indigenous player — and last non-midfielder — to win the AFL’s highest individual award as the game’s fairest and best player.
In just his third year in the AFL after being drafted by the Bombers from SANFL club Port Adelaide at pick 12 in 1989 and making the move east after winning a flag with the Magpies in 1990, Wanganeen polled 18 votes to edge pre-count favourite Greg Williams from Carlton and the ineligible Garry Hocking from Geelong by one vote.
His win after just 60 AFL games and after he didn’t poll a vote until round eight was built on a scintillating four-week run where he polled 11 of a possible 12 votes between rounds 16 and 19.
In doing so, Wanganeen went from seven votes behind Williams after round 15 to two in front just four weeks later.
Given licence to thrill by coach Kevin Sheedy as a playmaking back pocket, the superbly-skilled Wanganeen filled the highlights reel with high-flying marks, tremendous acts of courage when he threw his light frame back into packs and some gravity-defying spoils where he would seemingly come from nowhere to get a fist on a ball to save a goal.
Then there were the brilliant runs from defence with a sense of freedom that was the hallmark of the young Bombers of 1993, who rose from eighth the year before to win the premiership, thumping the Blues by 44 points in the grand final.
“That was an amazing year,’’ Wanganeen said.
“We had such a young team, the ‘Baby Bombers’, and Kevin just got us to play with great energy, enthusiasm and flair.
“He urged us to take the game on and I suppose I was a bit of a free spirit who wanted to play exciting footy and he backed me to play that way.’’
A stunned Wanganeen’s Brownlow acceptance speech was short and sharp, lasting just 20 seconds.
“I didn’t know what to say,’’ the South Australian told The Advertiser this week.
“It just hit me and I felt like it was a bit of a dream really. It's only as I’ve got older that you become a lot more appreciative of the things you’ve done.
“I look back at that now and feel really proud and understand fully what I achieved and the importance of it.
“To become the first indigenous player to win the Brownlow in this wonderful game is extremely special and I’m sure made a lot of indigenous people around Australia really proud of their identity.”
But Wanganeen's medal win wasn’t without controversy.
Williams, who had won the Brownlow with Sydney in 1986 and would also win with Carlton in 1994, claimed he had been robbed by not polling a vote in his 44-disposal game in the Blues’ nine-goal win against Melbourne in round 10.
He would later seek legal advice in a bid to be recognised as a joint winner of the medal.
Wanganeen, now 45, said he was disappointed in Williams’ reaction, noting “there is always some unpredictability with Brownlow voting’’.
“It’s not an exact science,’’ Wanganeen said.
“I look back and think maybe Williams should have polled votes in that game but there’s been plenty of years where players haven’t got votes when they’ve probably deserved them.
“It didn’t tarnish my medal win at all because the Brownlow all comes down to the view of the umpires and the luck of the draw.’’
Wanganeen said he endured a similar fate in 2003 when — after leaving Essendon to return to Port to become its inaugural AFL captain in 1997 — he had his best season and was Brownlow favourite, only to finish one vote, with 21, behind joint winners Mark Ricciuto (Adelaide), Adam Goodes (Sydney) and Nathan Buckley (Collingwood).
“I was very confident that year — much more confident than in 1993 — and actually imagined it all happening that night because I’d had easily my best season,’’ he said.
“Choco (Power coach Mark Williams) freed me up to play in the midfield and I relished that.
“There were three or four games where I thought I could have got more votes but I didn't make an issue of it because that happens with the Brownlow, sometimes the votes go for you and sometimes they don’t.’’
Father of five Wanganeen, who in post-football life has turned his hand to painting Aboriginal artwork, cannot believe he is the last defender — and non-midfielder — to win the Brownlow.
After 25 years, he is ready to hand the mantle to someone else but has tipped Hawthorn ball magnet and hot favourite Tom Mitchell to walk away with “Charlie’’ on Monday night.
“I’d love to see someone other than a midfielder win,’’ said Wanganeen, who played a total of 300 games for Essendon and Port from 1991-2006, winning premierships with both clubs and being a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
“A lot of great players over the years have missed out on winning it, champions like Wayne Carey and Gary Ablett Sr, because it has become a midfielders medal.
“I understand it’s a hard job for the umpires because midfielders are around the action all the time and get a lot of possessions but I’d like to see a player’s impact and how he uses the ball be rewarded rather than the number of possessions.’’
Wanganeen believes star ruckmen, Melbourne’s Max Gawn and Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy, have the best chance of upsetting Mitchell.
andrew.capel@news.com.au