Brownlow Medal 2023: Umpires, coaches and All-Australian selectors saw season very differently

Getting subbed off and earning three votes? Sure. One vote for five kicks? Why not. Check out the most eyebrow-raising games from a strange Brownlow night.

It took only two rounds to confirm that AFL coaches and umpires do not see eye-to-eye.

Sydney captain Callum Mills had torched Hawthorn with 28 disposals and two goals to pocket a perfect 10 votes from the coaches … but it was teammate Joel Amartey, who got substituted out of that 81-point thumping, that took the umpires’ eye.

Amartey booted four first-half goals before being benched following an interrupted pre-season but was awarded the three votes as Mills was left off the sheet.

Amartey played 50 per cent game time and when Channel 7s cameras panned to the Swans’ table, Mills and his mates couldn’t help but laugh.

Collingwood premiership player Dale Thomas used his presentation of Goal of the year (to Will Ashcroft) to reflect on how he was “absolutely robbed” of the award in 2007.

Plenty of players appeared to share that feeling when Brownlow votes were opened on Monday night.

What about Lion Charlie Cameron?

Cameron’s motorbike did Manuka Oval burnouts when he bagged seven goals against the Giants in round 6. Josh Kelly (41 disposals) and Stephen Coniglio (38) also had days out … but it was Lachie Neale’s seven kicks and 76 SuperCoach points that pocketed the three.

How did the coaches see it? Well, they showered eight players with votes from their 5-4-3-2-1s, but could not find room for Neale.

The Sydney table's reaction after Amartey got three votes in Round 2 😂 #Brownlowpic.twitter.com/yUTUdLjHku

— 7AFL (@7AFL) September 25, 2023

What about Mattaes Philipou? That same round the young gun polled his first ever Brownlow Medal vote. It came after five kicks and 39 SuperCoach points against Carlton.

Jason Horne-Francis got three votes against Geelong from 13 disposals, one tackle and no goals. Four of those touches were ineffective, two were clangers and he was not among the nine players who polled coaches’ votes.

Dion Prestia had 20 disposals or more in 18 of his 20 games. But it was his 19-disposal game against Geelong that jagged Prestia his only three.

But peculiar votes are part-and-parcel of footy’s night of nights and Neale soon became a runaway leader (TAB’s $1.20 favourite after round 15).

Jason Horne-Francis after his 13 disposal, three-vote game against Geelong. Picture: Mark Stewart

The 2020 champion and 2022 runner-up became a dual Brownlow medallist – the first since Matthew Priddis in 2014 not to be named in the All-Australian team.

The one-time rookie was a deserving winner, sealing his place in history with seven votes in the final three rounds.

If Patrick Cripps’ one-match suspension was not overturned on appeal last year courtesy of a legal technicality then Neale would be a three-time winner.

That would place him in the rarest of air, alongside legends Hayden Bunton Sr, Dick Reynolds, Bob Skilton and Ian Stewart.

In the end Gather Round cost Nick Daicos the game’s most prestigious award.

The AFL grossed $30 million from adding the extra round this season and Daicos was only overtaken by Neale in round 24.

If the season finished at round 23, as it long has, then Daicos and Neale would both be entering Saturday’s grand final with Charlie in their cabinets as joint winners on 28 votes.

If one thing has become clear tonight it’s that the Brownlow medal can no longer be done by the umpires.. some of these votes are insane.
Neale 3 vs Giants was a bit how you going but Horne Francis 3 vs Cats is mind blowing #BrownlowMedal

— Tom Rockliff (@rockwiz38) September 25, 2023

Retiring Essendon ruckman Andrew Phillips had not polled a vote in his 11 years. But that changed in Gather Round when he gathered 12 disposals and kicked two goals in the wet against Melbourne.

Coaches Brad Scott and Simon Goodwin found room for eight players when they lodged their 5-4-3-2-1 – but the umpires judged Phillips best-on-ground.

The list of players who polled 10 from the coaches and none from the umpires was long. There was Amartey and Dayne Zorko in round 2, Jordan De Goey and Izak Rankine in round 3 and Caleb Serong in round 5.

The Rankine snub was justice for Showdown Medal voters, who gave the gong to Jordan Dawson and were in sync with the whistleblowers.

Umpires awarding unexpected votes is a Brownlow tradition. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

By round 8 the coaches and umpires were not only on different pages, but in different libraries. Esava Ratugolea, Luke Jackson, Zak Butters and Callum Wilkie all polled 10 from the coaches and zero from the umpires.

It rolled on. Sean Darcy and Christian Petracca in round 9, Luke Parker, Mitch Lewis and Jack Sinclair in round 10 and Tom Stewart in round 12.

Also on the list? Adam Cerra (round 17), Sam Taylor and Dan Rioli (round 18), Luke Jackson (round 21), Jake Lever (round 23)

That is a lot of games deemed perfect by the coaches and not on the podium by the umpires.

Originally published as Brownlow Medal 2023: Umpires, coaches and All-Australian selectors saw season very differently