Champion Data reveals its Brownlow Medal leaderboard to Round 7
Champion Data has revealed its Brownlow Medal leaderboard to Round 7, with a shock contender challenging Brisbane’s Lachie Neale and Matthew Rowell set to figure prominently in early voting. See the leading vote-getters.
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Travis Boak has emerged as runaway Brownlow Medal favourite Lachie Neale’s biggest threat just seven games after complicated post-season surgery left him contemplating retirement.
Port Adelaide and GWS, along with the defunct University, are the only clubs that have never produced a Brownlow winner but Champion Data has the former Power captain second to Neale after Round 7.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE CHAMPION DATA LEADERBOARD
The Port Adelaide star injured his shoulder in July last year and what was supposed to be a 30-minute operation dragged on for 2 ½ hours as surgeons discovered torn tendons in the 31-year-old.
Boak also had his knee cleaned as retirement started to weigh on his mind after 264 games in 13 seasons.
“I just had no power,” Boak said.
“There was definitely stages there where I thought I couldn’t get back.
“Whether that was through the pain (or) through the fact I felt like I was never going to get strength in my shoulder again … I couldn’t move it for a month.”
Boak spent eight weeks in a sling and 10 weeks after surgery he still couldn’t raise his arm above his head.
But the damaging midfielder went California dreaming, with a training camp in Santa Cruz teaching Boak to operate his body in more efficiently.
Boak and teammate Charlie Dixon began to lift greater weights while burning less energy and altered their posture and running mechanics so they could move quicker with less fatigue.
It was the fourth-straight year Boak headed to the US for an off-season camp.
Boak – who has Theodore Roosevelt’s quote ‘Man in the Arena’ scribbled on his boots – has kicked brilliant opening goals from the Gabba pockets to ignite his ladder-topping team in the past two weeks.
The veteran leads Port Adelaide for disposals (22 average), contested possessions 9.7), metres gained (370), clearances (5) and is equal-first for tackles (4.4).
Boak’s 46 score involvements also ranks No. 2 in the AFL, behind only Tom Hawkins (Geelong), while he is averaging a career-high 113 SuperCoach points.
But Boak is still rated a $21 outsider for the Brownlow Medal.
Champion Data’s scientific predictor distributes votes to decimal places and says there is a 13 per cent chance Boak is the current leader (Neale is 48 per cent).
Based on analysis of past results in Brownlow Medal voting, match stats are used to distribute Champion Data’s votes.
The scientific formula had Gold Coast’s No. 1 pick Matthew Rowell sitting second behind Neale before his shoulder injury in Round 5.
Carlton superstar Patrick Cripps and 2016 Brownlow Medallist Patrick Dangerfield, along with the injured Rowell, are the only other players within five votes of Neale.
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