Port Adelaide star Ollie Wines wins 2021 AFL Brownlow Medal
He might be Port’s first Brownlow medallist, but Ollie Wines’ one dream as a kid was to play for Carlton — and he used to ring up radio legend Rex Hunt to tell him all about it.
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Port Adelaide wrecking ball Ollie Wines capped his extraordinary career revival taking out the Brownlow Medal on Sunday night.
The man who started the season as an $81 longshot claimed the game’s top individual honour polling 36 votes to pip Western Bulldogs’ Marcus Bontempelli (33) and Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver (31) in a thrilling count in Perth.
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Wines’ 36 votes equals Richmond’s Dustin Martin’s 2017 record for the most votes in a year.
But it came down to the last game of the season as Wines starred with 34 possessions and polled two more votes to seal the Brownlow in the comeback win over Western Bulldogs.
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It was a remarkable night as the main Brownlow fancies dominated the count, with three players racking up more than 30 votes for the first time under the current 3-2-1 system.
It came down to the last game of the season as Wines starred with 34 possessions and polled two more votes to seal the Brownlow in the comeback win over Western Bulldogs.
And a new generation of star midfielders emerged as Carlton’s Sam Walsh (30) and Essendon’s Darcy Parish (26) finished top-five alongside Saint Jack Steele (26).
Wines, 26, made his move in the back end of the season, reeling in Bontempelli who led by four votes at Round 15 and three votes after Round 19.
But as Bontempelli cooled in the final month of the season the Echuca product, who was sounded out by Carlton in the trade period two years ago, continued his midfield demolition job in 2021.
In all, Port’s clearance king polled in 16 games and 11 of the last 12 of the season.
Wines, who was pillared for dislocating his shoulder in a waterskiing slip-up in the 2019 pre-season, averaged 32 possessions a game this year to re-establish himself as one of the game’s premier ballwinners.
He endured a tough year in 2019 when there was speculation about his position in the team and whether he would head home to Victoria after playing 12 games for six Brownlow votes that year.
But while the Blues admitted they held some interest, Wines made the call to stay and remained keen to lead the team to a flag after bowing out in a preliminary final thrashing from the Bulldogs this year.
Oliver, who will spearhead the Demons’ premiership bid against the Bulldogs on Saturday, threatened throughout the count, but polled in one of the last three games of the season.
Wines was taken with pick No.7 to Port Adelaide in the 2012 draft and on Sunday night became the Power’s first Brownlow Medalist.
Wines said he was honoured to win the prestigious award as part of a career-best year after battling some homesickness early in his AFL journey.
Wines said it was tough on draft night moving to South Australia initially.
“I didn’t expect to go to Port Adelaide or go interstate from Victoria, I am a very home-orientated person and I had a really good upbringing with my family and I was a little bit shocked to go to Port Adelaide,” Wines said.
“There was a few tears from mum and dad and myself on the night but it has only strengthened me to become the person I am today and to be honest it is the best decision the club could have made for me.
“Us as a human rather than a footballer is what is most important and I think that (move) helped develop me into the man I am today and I am very proud of that.”
Wines was a Carlton supporter as a youngster and said he would often call radio station 3AW to speak to Rex Hunt on the footy talk back lines.
He said after local footy games in the Murray River region he would dial in on the way home and want to talk about his favourite player, Blues’ Andrew Walker, also from Echuca.
“Dad used to be runner for Moama in the Murray league and on the way back when I was a young tacker we used to stop and get a six-pack and a bit of pork crackle for me,” Wines said.
“I used to ring up Rex Hunt and ask about Andrew Walker’s stats and I always got through, every week.
“Rex would tell me Andrew Walker’s stats. I was that interested in him and I think as a young fella from a country town like that you want to follow your idols and those guys were perfect examples.
“It was the early 2000s when Rex was still calling and I would get through and talk about my Blues.”
Ben Cousins steals show on Brownlow red carpet
Simeon Thomas-Wilson
Ben Cousins has stolen the show at the Brownlow Medal red carpet in his first public appearance in more than a decade.
While some of the stars of the game were out in force at red carpet events in Perth and Brisbane, it was the 2005 Brownlow Medal winner who became the main attraction at Optus Stadium.
As a former winner, Cousins gets an invitation to the prestigious night every year.
But as the 43-year-old has endured battles with drug addiction and the law, the ex West Coast and Richmond star has not been at the event in more than a decade.
As he continued his road to redemption, Cousins has been out in public more and even played a couple of games for Metro Football League outfit Queens Park after rekindling his love for the game, the former Eagles star said he was happy to be back at the event.
“Yeah absolutely, it is definitely a big night,” he said.
“It has been a while since I have been to one of the football industry nights.
“So I’m looking forward to it.
Cousins said there had been some work to get him ready for the event.
“A little bit behind the scenes, but that’s part of it,” he said.
“We find ourselves in different situations along the way.
“It is just great to be here tonight.”
How a small town produced two Brownlow favourites
The width of a door separates Ollie Wines and Clayton Oliver in the Echuca Hotel main bar.
On Sunday night, it may be only be a few votes.
Port Adelaide star Wines and Melbourne ball magnet Oliver will head into the Brownlow Medal count as the two favourites.
As they walk the event’s red carpet in Perth, their framed, signed guernseys will hang proudly a metre or so apart in their hometown pub in northern Victoria.
“If you’re having a beer, you’re looking at both those boys all day long,” Echuca Hotel owner David Connally tells News Corp.
“Ollie picked a spot and we take the p*** out of him a little bit, and say it’s Ollie’s corner.
“To the very left of him is Clayton Oliver, so there’s every chance we might have a winner and a second.
“To have two boys in the favourites is remarkable.”
Particularly when you consider Echuca, which is located on the banks of the Murray River, has a population of about 14,000.
Even more so when you take into account the duo’s similarities, least of all sharing a name.
Both are 187cm, tough, inside midfielders: Oliver Wines is 98kg, Clayton Oliver is 88kg.
They might well have become teammates if Melbourne took Wines with pick four in 2012 — the year the Demons snared his long-time friend Jack Viney as a father-son selection.
Instead, Melbourne sought outside run by taking Jimmy Toumpas, Wines went to the Power at No. 7 then Oliver joined Viney at Melbourne at No. 4 three years later.
It was Viney, an Echuca Primary schoolmate, who introduced Wines to football.
Not at Echuca, but across the Murray, in New South Wales, where Viney’s dad, Demons great Todd Viney, was coaching Moama’s under-12s.
Oliver rose through the ranks at Mooroopna, a 45-minute drive away.
Wines later switched to his hometown club.
The Power vice-captain made his senior debut for Echuca when NAB League club Bendigo Pioneers had a break.
“No one knew about him (in his first match) but then he was tagged the next couple of games he played, that’s how good he was,” Echuca footy director, ex-Demon Simon Eishold, recalls.
“We didn’t put him in a forward pocket and say ‘good luck’ or start him on the bench or anything, Ollie went straight in the middle of the ground, and off he went.”
Playing against men prepared Wines for the bash-and-crash of the AFL.
Walks home from training gave him the chance to hone his kicking.
Each time he passed the same Greek statue perched on a pedestal at a local park, he targeted its head.
“Ollie used to walk down to the footy club in his boots, bouncing the footy and then he’d walk home bouncing the footy,” says Eishold, who has known Wines and Oliver all their lives.
Echuca locals have noticed Wines seems to have recaptured his love of football this year.
Injury-free and with the Power again a premiership contender, the 26-year-old played every game for the first time since 2018.
He is also settled off the field with a girlfriend from Adelaide, a contract until the end of 2026 and is understood to be looking into potentially buying a house in SA — he is now renting off skipper Tom Jonas.
It was only two years ago that Wines missed 10 matches through injury, questioned his future, was linked to Carlton, then lost the co-captaincy.
“Watching Ollie play this year, he seems so happy, so relaxed, workrate high, effort high, care factor high — there’s a real happiness looking at him this year,” Eishold says.
“That means he’s fully fit, he’s confident in his playing ability and he’s up and about.
“When he had his leg and shoulder (injuries), you never saw that same smile or happiness.
“It’s been beautiful watching him.
“Lots of boys like running around doing the high-fives, kicking goals.
“Not enough blokes in football do what he does, the in-and-under stuff.”
Wines is now 182 matches into his career and Oliver sits on 123.
According to Champion Data, they ranked elite during the home-and-away campaign for disposals, contested possessions and ground-ball gets.
Oliver averaged a league-best 17.6 contested disposals, while Wines was third for overall touches with 32.1.
Echuca locals last week had been hoping for a Demons-Port Adelaide grand final, but the Power’s 71-point loss to the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night quashed that.
“We were thinking last week ‘who are we going to barrack for,’ Connally says.
Watching Wines and Oliver have career-best seasons, as well as fellow Echuca product Lachie Schultz emerge at Fremantle, has given locals plenty to smile about in another frustrating year.
Covid has again taken its toll, shutting down businesses and forcing the abandonment of the Goulburn Valley football season.
Echuca finished as minor premier and was eyeing its first A-grade premiership in 19 years.
“What’s going on in this world is just s---, so to have the interest in football … there’s a huge buzz for both boys,” Connally says.
“To think two local kids, two ripping kids, have gone on … and done all the hard work to get where they’ve got, to have their two guernseys within three metres in your front bar and then maybe a premiership, Brownlow in the same year is a pretty good story.”
No Port Adelaide player has won a Brownlow since the club’s start in the AFL in 1997.
Melbourne’s most recent one came the last time they reached a grand final — Shane Woewodin in 2000.
The Echuca Hotel would be running raffles, calcuttas and rallying around the two local Brownlow hopes if not for Covid.
Usually with an indoor capacity of 300, the pub can have a mere 10 due to restrictions.
“I could invite eight of my closest friends and sit in the bar legally, but I’ll probably be watching it at home,” says Connally, whose hotel also has guernseys of local products Andrew Walker (Carlton) and Michael Braun (West Coast) with one of Schultz coming soon.
Covid has also stopped the players from returning to Echuca this season.
Oliver visits his parents, Michelle and Steve, a former “ripping Echuca footballer”, each Christmas.
So too does Wines, whose family still lives close to the river, a few drop punts from the Echuca Hotel and about 500m from the football club.
“Ollie’s a quiet fella, he’s not down the main street, standing on the corner yahooing,” Eishold says.
“He’s reluctant to be public … but he pops into the club.
“He’s not a big-noter — he’s a lovely ripping kid, he talks to everyone, acknowledges everyone and his grassroots haven’t left him.”
Connally says Wines is more comfortable slipping back into town quietly and having some low-key beers with his mates.
The football club and pub have been planning an “Ollie Day” for the next time he is in Echuca to thank him for donating 10 49.5L Carlton Draught kegs last year.
Wines was awarded them after being named Fox Footy’s best-on-ground in the Power’s home qualifying final win over Geelong in October.
His connection to his hometown was there for all to see when he asked if he could give the beer to the Echuca, rather than nominate an Adelaide pub as the hosts had expected.
The kegs have been drunk but Connally will put on more during an afternoon in the pub’s beer garden when Wines is back and 300 people can attend.
Whatever is spent that day on that beer will go towards the local football club.
“I said ‘Ollie what are you going to do with your kegs?’ You won them. But he said ‘Dave, they’re not mine, I donated them to the Echuca Hotel,” Connally says.
“He’s happy to facilitate a fundraising day for the footy club.
“It’s goodwill by Ollie to support the footy club.”
A Brownlow Medal for either Wines or Oliver will be cause for a double celebration.
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