Matt Rowell stuns favourites to win Brownlow Medal with 39 votes
Matt Rowell looked like a future Brownlow winner the moment he stepped on the field in 2020. But no one would have seen coming the fashion in which he did it, stunning the field in a rampant victory.
From the moment he announced himself over three blistering weeks in his debut season, Matt Rowell looked destined to become a Brownlow medallist.
But few would have anticipated that Rowell would win the 2025 Brownlow in a runaway upset, securing the game’s highest individual honour with three games remaining up his sleeve in Monday night’s count.
The Gold Coast superstar polled 39 votes – the second-highest tally of all time – to trump Nick Daicos by seven votes and become the second Suns player to win a Brownlow Medal after Gary Ablett Jr in 2013.
SCROLL DOWN TO RECAP THE NIGHT AS IT HAPPENED
Rowell and his close friend and captain Noah Anderson were inseparable at the Gold Coast table in Crown Palladium, but the umpires only had eyes for the former as he became the second Sun after Gary Ablett Jr in 2013 to claim the AFL’s highest individual honour.
From just the second, third and fourth games of his career in 2020, Rowell was already one of a select group to poll maximum Brownlow votes in three consecutive matches.
The 24-year-old began Monday’s count by polling 12 votes in his first four games for the season – the first player in Brownlow Medal history to do so.
By then, Rowell had emerged as a serious contender, but that forecast was upgraded to likely winner when he added maximum votes in rounds 7 and 9 to open up a five-vote lead on Daicos and fast starter Andrew Brayshaw.
After a quiet fortnight, his lead narrowed to one vote ahead of Brayshaw and Bailey Smith, but he clicked into gear again to put the result beyond doubt by the end of round 22.
Gold Coast played most of its matches later in the round than Collingwood; for every game Daicos threatened with two or three votes, Rowell had an answer.
The victory made him just the second No. 1 draft pick after Western Bulldogs’ Adam Cooney (2008) to win a Brownlow Medal.
The self-described “weirdo”, who is partial to eating a handful of grass pre-game as a “grounding” exercise, paid tribute to Anderson in an emotional victors’ speech after he was presented his medal by 2024 winner Patrick Cripps.
Cripps’ 45 votes last season was the only tally preventing Rowell from snaring the record.
Rowell, a Canterbury Cobras junior, finished his local football years playing with Anderson at the Boroondara Hawks as they also attended Carey Grammar and played in the first 18.
“It’s cool going through the whole journey with (Anderson). I think I might have pinched a few votes off him tonight that he should’ve got,” Rowell said.
“To get drafted together (in 2019) was pretty cool … it made it a lot easier to transition into the AFL. I love playing with him, and also I love him as a mate as well.
“That friendship means a lot to me. It’s not very often that you get to go to an AFL club with your best mate. Winning the premiership in year 12 … we’d love to do that at an AFL club. I love playing with him and love him as a bloke.”
Anderson raised his glass and skolled the rest of his drink in response, to the delight of the room.
Rowell (39) and Daicos (32) were joined on the podium by Cat Bailey Smith (29), and followed by Adelaide captain Jordan Dawson (27) and Brayshaw (26).
The Brownlow medallist, who brought former Gold Coast teammate Jack Mahony as his guest, was naturally asked about the images of him eating grass before a game in 2023.
“That’s another reason why I’m a weirdo. I started doing that a few years ago … you try a lot of weird things, and that was just like a grounding process that I wanted to do before games,” Rowell said.
“Feel, sight, taste obviously … it was a fun thing to do. Someone in Darwin said, ‘we saw you eating grass before the game. It goes through the sewage or something, the water, so you might just want to check that nothing is wrong with you after this’.”
Rowell thanked his family, including his mum Louise, who he noted was a good left-footer.
Anderson finished in equal sixth, the joint favourite of the AFL coaches, but not as influential in the eyes of the umpires.
Originally published as Matt Rowell stuns favourites to win Brownlow Medal with 39 votes
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