Trent Cotchin ends AFL’s longest Brownlow Medal drought

IT’S not the Western Bulldogs or Chicago Cubs, but Trent Cotchin ended a major sporting drought when he was awarded the 2012 Brownlow Medal.

Trent Cotchin at the 2012 Brownlow Medal.

THE trend of breaking sporting droughts in 2016 has continued with Trent Cotchin winning Richmond’s first Brownlow Medal in 41 years.

It’s not quite the Western Bulldogs or Chicago Cubs, but the decision to award Cotchin and Sam Mitchell joint Brownlows for 2012 broke the longest drought in the AFL, dating back to Ian Stewart’s triumph in 1971.

Along the way there were allegations of conspiracies and a near dust-up as Tigers came up short time and time again.

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There were 46 Brownlows awarded from 1972-2012, with underdogs Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs winning four and six of them, respectively. West Coast (three), Fremantle and Gold Coast all claimed Brownlow medals during the Tiger drought. Even Fitzroy won one in 1981.

In 1974 Kevin Bartlett won his second Richmond best-and-fairest, cleaned up the media awards and entered the Brownlow count a hot favourite.

When North Melbourne’s Keith Greig claimed the final votes of the night and his second consecutive Brownlow, the Richmond table erupted with boos. North Melbourne’s contingent seated nearby took exception and officials almost came to blows outside.

“I was favourite to win, but they (the league) shuffled the votes and I lost and that aggravated (president Ian) Wilson and (secretary Alan) Schwab. They took it as a slur on Richmond and were pretty outspoken and called it a disgrace. But I never thought that,” Bartlett told the AFL Record in 2014. “Keith was a champion and a fantastic player so I was a bit embarrassed about it.”

Kevin Bartlett during the 1974 Brownlow Medal count.

Wayne Campbell arrives at the 1995 Brownlow count.

Geoff Raines started favourite in 1980 — another Tigers premiership year — and somehow finished with zero votes. He blames the result on “some kind of conspiracy”.

“If you don’t get a vote, something funny has gone on. But I can’t prove that. Kelvin Templeton was a worthy medallist,” Raines said in The Final Story — 1980, a documentary on the Grand Final.

Fifteen years later Richmond centreman Wayne Campbell started second-favourite and polled 10 votes to finish equal 21st.

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Bartlett finished second in 1977 — but trailed Graham Teasdale by 14 votes in one of two seasons when both field umpires awarded 3-2-1 votes after every game — and fourth in 1978. Maurice Rioli was second in 1983, one vote behind Ross Glendinning.

The closest a Tiger got to ending the drought since then was in 2008 when crowd favourite Matthew Richardson almost pulled off a huge upset.

At age 33, Richo moved to the wing that season and was willed home by most in the Crown ballroom but fell two votes short of winner Adam Cooney.

Matthew Richardson in action during his almost Brownlow-winning year.

The fan favourite revealed last year he wasn’t a fan when coach Terry Wallace told him he would be playing further up the ground.

“I said, ‘What are my options, Terry?’. He said, ‘You can play for Coburg.’ I said, ‘I love the wing, get me up there’. It was a great year, we didn’t make the finals again but I went all right and nearly won the Brownlow, so there you go.”

It’s easy to forget how good Cotchin was in 2012. He won the AFL coach’s association award by eight votes from Dayne Beams and averaged a career-high 116 SuperCoach points.

For the record, the longest current Brownlow drought post-Cotchin belongs to North Melbourne, which hasn’t claimed the medal since Glendinning saluted in 1983. Port Adelaide and GWS are the only clubs without a Brownlow in the trophy cabinet.