Bone’s beef: Why Brownlow Medal count is losing my vote

THEY got the winner right, but Tuesday night’s Brownlow Medal appeared to have lost a bit of its lustre, writes Chris McDermott

Dustin Martin accepts the AFL 2017 Brownlow Medal at Crown Palladium. Picture: Mark Stewart

ADD the Brownlow Medal count to your “to-do list”, Gil.

The Brownlow Medal count is one of the great nights of any football season.

As a player back in the 1990s we loved it.

The opportunity to rub shoulders with the game’s greats from the past and the present was an opportunity not to be missed.

SEE THE MARKS AND VOTE

In days of old the count was largely “ boys only”.

Yes ladies, I hear you, but these were different times and important times in the development of the Adelaide Football Club. That was the line we took anyway.

There was no Red Carpet. No passing parade. No theatre. Just a good old footy night.

I have some great memories from that bygone era.

In 1993, after Adelaide was knocked out in the preliminary final by Essendon, it was a pretty disconsolate Crows crew that boarded the plane to Melbourne, bar one. T. Modra.

Jeremy Howe’s huge mark over Tom McDonald. Picture: Mark Stewart

Essendon’s Joe Daniher leaps of St Kilda’s Jake Carlisle for Mark of the Year. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images

The superstar missed the flight and had to be replaced by a life-size cardboard cutout we kidnapped from the Adelaide Airport.

It didn’t leave our side for the next 24 hours. It made it to the count and even found a spare seat on our table. It humoured us anyway.

When the count finished we’d head to the piano bar and lock horns with the Carlton, Footscray and Fitzroy boys. Blues president John Elliott was always a star performer.

It is a far more civilised occasion today.

Not necessarily better, certainly more civilised and not always correct.

The Mark of the Year award on Tuesday night was a perfect example.

Joe Daniher took a great catch but Jeremy Howe’s was better. Clearly. But somehow the judges thought otherwise and Daniher got the nod.

Mark Ricciuto is swamped by Crows players and well-wishers after his joint win at the 2003 Brownlow Medal.

Small moment on the night, but really?

Jack Hombsch was the rightful winner of the Jim Stynes award for his outstanding work in the community. No argument there.

As always the votes were of great interest and debate continues to rage if the task is just too hard for the umpires in today’s game.

Jake Lever just one vote? Chad Wingard only four?

Essendon defender Michael Hurley was named an All-Australian but polled just four votes, Melbourne young gun Christian Petracca polled a miserly two and Swans defender Dane Rampe also polled just two.

Not that I’m picking on the men in white. Those days are over. But in a time where the game is changing rapidly, it’s time to give the Brownlow count an upgrade.

At least they did get the winner right. Congratulations to Dustin Martin on one of the great individual seasons in memory.

Originally published as Bone’s beef: Why Brownlow Medal count is losing my vote