Time to banish the archaic Brownlow Medal tradition of ‘fairest’ and move with the times
BROWNLOW criteria has never been less relevant to modern football. With Patrick Dangerfield’s hopes of a second hanging in the balance, Jon Ralph says it’s time for change.
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IT is a hell of a thing to steal away a player’s chances of winning a Brownlow Medal.
It is two decades on from Chris Grant and Corey McKernan’s controversies yet both remain bemused and frustrated by those circumstances.
The match review panel already faces an impossible decision on Patrick Dangerfield without considering the massive stakes of the Brownlow.
The criteria for the cherished individual award, first handed out in 1924, has never been less relevant to modern football.
Time to banish that archaic tradition of “fairest” to the same place where the drop kick and flick pass now reside.
Patrick Dangerfield could be penalised for a dangerous tackle that saw a player concussed after he pinned his arms.
It was only 18 months ago the AFL ruled all those dangerous or dumping tackles would actually be penalised.
Adam Cooney says Patrick Dangerfield will be suspended for his tackle on Matthew Kreuzer
Patrick Dangerfield faces Brownlow Medal wait after heavy tackle concusses Matthew Kreuzer
It was only three years ago the AFL hardened their concussion rules to see players like Kreuzer prevented from returning.
And it was only in the last decade that players were forced to pin the arms because players were so brilliant at evading tackles around the waist.
How can we so consistently update the rules around those areas yet keep Brownlow criteria largely unchanged.
All three are separate but in this case related developments those who drafted the Brownlow rules could never have foreseen.
Even if they had drafted them a decade ago, let alone 93 years ago.
As Brownlow Medallist Adam Cooney said, just turn the Brownlow into the best player and be done with it.
Patrick Dangerfield could be penalised for a dangerous tackle
“I am happy to eliminate the fairest part and if you are the best player in the competition and miss one or two weeks through suspension and are good enough to win the Brownlow they should eliminate the fairest part and have the best player in the competition,” he told SEN.
“If Dustin Martin whacks someone in the guts with his next fine he misses a game. He could lose the Brownlow for that too.”
Martin and Dangerfield could by Round 23 be ineligible for the Brownlow and yet neither player has ever been suspended — so far.
In 196 games Dangerfield has an umpire contact charge and in 171 Martin has only an assortment of low-level charges.
He has three melee charges, a wrestling charge and two fines from the game against Brisbane — rough conduct hit on Lewis Taylor and contact-to-the-face charge on Nick Robertson.
Neither are thugs, both are pure ball players.
We should take away Brownlows only in extreme and compelling situations like the 12-month drug ban handed to Jobe Watson.
Not because Dangerfield acquiesced to a team directive to pin his rival’s arms in a tackle and held on a split second too long.
It is impossible to predict whether he will be suspended because he falls smack bang in the middle of the AFL’s rules on dangerous tackles.
He didn’t lift Kreuzer, he didn’t dump him, he didn’t rotate his body to create momentum to hurt him.
Those are the three key indicators the MRP look at before they even consider whether his rival was hurt or not.
But they also consider whether a player’s arms were pinned (they were), if he still had the ball (he didn’t), and whether the force was “excessive”.
His concussion lends itself to the “excessive” part of the tackle.
It is understood the MRP continually reinforces that it should assess the incident and not the player involved or the stakes for that player.
Time to take the Brownlow ramifications out of their hands and move with the times — as they AFL does with its rule book, its style of play and its community standards.
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