Luke Hodge the only player to poll Norm Smith Medal votes in four Grand Finals
AS Luke Hodge starts his farewell tour, the list of accolades are so immense they begin to blur into each other, writes Jon Ralph. Yet, one stands out from the pack.
Jon Ralph
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GLENN Archer famously played footy for premierships and footy trips.
Everything else was just white noise.
As Luke Hodge starts his seven-week farewell tour, the list of accolades are so immense they begin to blur into each other.
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And yet like 1996 Norm Smith Medallist Archer, you get the feeling there are some achievements Hodge will cherish above some others.
Hodge isn’t the first player of the modern era to play great footy across multiple Grand Finals.
But he is the only one since the AFL started keeping full records in 2002 to poll Norm Smith Medal votes in four Grand Finals.
History will tell us that Gary Ayres, Hodge and Andrew McLeod are multiple winners of the award many have never actually had the chance to win.
But Hodge is in rare air, inhabiting territory that not even Michael Voss or Gary Ablett or Joel Selwood have been able to boast about.
No one else from 2002 onwards has polled in more than two Norm Smith Medal counts, even if Shaun Burgoyne, Jack Gunston and many others have been consistent performers.
The 2008 Normie was reward for a feat of stunning bravery, patrolling half-back with damaged ribs as he thwarted Geelong’s advances to poll maximum votes.
The 2014 Norm Smith count was closer, his 35 possessions and two goals pulling 10 votes, a single vote ahead of teammates Jordan Lewis and Sam Mitchell.
In 2015’s three-peat, the Australian’s Peter Lalor gave him two votes for 30 possessions and his brilliant boundary-line goal.
GRAND PERFORMERS — Leading Norm Smith vote-getters since 2002
In 2012, as Brian Lake conquered Fremantle, Brendan McCartney gave him two votes for his 17 kicks and four handballs.
It is far from the only judge of greatness but Norm Smith voting throws up all sorts of curiosities.
Dale Thomas was the only player to poll votes in both 2010 contests, winning four and six votes respectively.
For all his greatness Lance Franklin is yet to poll a Norm Smith vote in four Grand Finals.
Jason Gram polled nine votes in 2009 — the same as winner Paul Chapman — but Chapman won with a trio of best-afields despite Gram receiving votes from every judge.
Simon Black’s masterclass in 2003 was the only other unanimous winner with 15 votes, matching Hodge’s 2008 win.
Nathan Buckley won the 2002 Norm Smith on a day when judges handed in votes at the 20 minute mark of the last term.
Many said Michael Voss’s last 10 minutes would have changed their minds, but the votes are intriguing.
Buckley polled 12 votes ahead of Anthony Rocca (8) and Nigel Lappin (5), with Voss in fourth with four votes.
Judge Geoff Slattery gave Voss three votes and Patrick Smith one, but Paul Duffield, Robert Walls and Dwayne Russell didn’t give him a vote.
Voss’s last 10 minutes were enormous but would they have elevated him from the fourth-best player or worse to the best for some of those judges?
Maybe, which is why we love the romance of the medal and its importance.
Hawthorn’s Ayres, who won in 1986 and 1988 amid five premiership triumphs, said Hodge never let the Hawks down in big games.
“Hodgey has been an inspirational captain and player and I think of his courage,’’ he said.
“We all know he was pretty wounded in 2008 and then to be judged the best player when you have got 44 players out there on that one day, it’s a pretty special feeling.
“When you win something like that, it’s not really what you set out to achieve but it’s the icing on the cake.
“Hodgey has been right at the top of his game in those contests and not only has he played his best, he has brought other players along with him.”
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