Mark Robinson reveals the money trail that exposed an AFL umpire in alleged Brownlow Medal betting scandal

A modern-day crimefighter helped pinpoint a series of allegedly fishy bets on the Brownlow Medal and embroiled an umpire. Mark Robinson on the scandal that’s shaken the footy world.

Finally, sadly, the Brownlow Medal may have been got at.

It seems it could have been an inside job, as it always is with the betting scandals which have rocked sports around the world.

Cricket, baseball, basketball, soccer, you name them and they’ve all been brutalised by people believing they can fix matches, play dead or bowl no balls.

The Brownlow Medal was supposedly beyond the reaches of desperate and devious money makers.

But, no, an umpire has allegedly betrayed the purity of the Brownlow.

His name is Michael Pell.

You might not have heard his name before, and now you probably won’t forget it.

He, and three others, were arrested on Monday morning.

They probably were thinking they had got away with the Great Brownlow Robbery until police knocked on their doors.

It’s not yet known why Pell allegedly gave the votes of several matches to his three mates, who then allegedly placed bets across multiple betting agencies.

Was it a dumb tip-off or was it much more sinister?

Did Pell owe them money, was he being stood over? Are they old mates or organised crime figures? Did he get a cut of the action?

A police investigation will probably determine all that.

AFL umpire Michael Pell has been embroiled in a Brownlow Medal betting scandal.

The immediate concern for the AFL is how deep does the scandal run

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How many times did it allegedly happen and is Pell the only umpire?

Pell would be feeling sick right now.

He’s allegedly been caught betraying football’s most prestigious and most sacred award, which had its first night of celebration in 1924.

Not once off, either. He’s allegedly cheated the system in multiple games. He sat with his fellow two field umpires post-matches, where they decided who would receive the 3,2 and votes, and then he allegedly broke the seal of trust.

Pell umpired in the vicinity of 16 games this year and all 16 of those games have or will be scrutinised with betting agencies.

Allegations of The Great Brownlow Robbery, as opposed to one of Victoria’s most famous sporting scandals The Great Bookie Robbery, were identified by a modern-day crime fighter — data.

It appears Pell’s three mates, or at least one of them as the kingpin, placed the same bets across multiple agencies to try to avoid being red-flagged by the data police.

It didn’t work.

One agency was alerted to a punter or punters placing bets on players’ votes in different matches and winning every time. By the end of the count, a red flag was beside his name.

That information was given to the AFL. It cross-checked betting patterns with their other betting partners and found the same person/people had placed similar Brownlow bets with them.

The AFL immediately knew the information could only come from one source _ the umpires.

It cross checked the betting with games and the umpires involved and it produced the one constant — Pell.

AFL boss Gillon McLachlan receives the 2022 Brownlow Medal votes from Armaguard. Picture: AFL Photos/Getty Images

The discovery sickened AFL officials, too.

The league is accused of over indulging in betting partners, but without them Pell and his mates would still be thinking they were God’s gift to gambling.

Pell’s explanation will be the most riveting.

There’s a documentary on Netflix about an NBA referee named Tim Donaghy, who in 2007 gave information to gamblers about how he would referee games. He also bet on those games.

He was jailed for 15 months.

Over the years, there’s always been whispers and rumours surrounding the Brownlow.

Plunges have been won and lost, but one story has a bit more meat on the bone than others.

In 1993, the umpires had their traditional pre-Brownlow BBQ on the Sunday, and the chatter among them suggested Essendon’s Gavin Wanganeen would go close to winning the medal.

Carlton’s Greg Williams was the raging favourite, but one of the umpires told a bloke about the enthusiasm for Wanganeen, and the bloke told colleague Jon Anderson, who already had a stack on Williams to win.

At 14-1, Anderson had a saver on Wanganeen. “Hearing the umpires had said that was enough for me,’’ Anderson said.

The most infamous scandal came in 1910, when Carlton’s Bongo Lang was suspended for five years for accepting a bribe.

In response to these current allegations there will be calls to change the Brownlow Medal voting.

We don’t want that.

What we want, what we ask for, is people who don’t cheat, lie and deceive the Brownlow Medal.

Now it’s allegedly happened and Pell might end up joining football’s Hall of Shame, and potentially being on the podium.

Originally published as Mark Robinson reveals the money trail that exposed an AFL umpire in alleged Brownlow Medal betting scandal