Nick off! Brownlow blows it again as Daicos’ darling status confirmed

The Brownlow Medal is losing its lustre with footy fans - and this year proved an emerging problem with the count isn’t going away.

Nick Daicos’ darling status was confirmed on Brownlow night. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Pin-pointing where the umpires got it completely wrong has become as much of a Brownlow tradition as players having a drink when they poll a vote.

And the whistleblowers delivered again as the AFL held its night of nights on Monday.

No one was catching Patrick Cripps as he smashed the record by polling 45 of a possible 69 votes, but there were still plenty of head-scratching names read out at times during the evening - including runner-up Nick Daicos.

For the second year in a row Daicos proved an absolute darling with the umpires as he tallied a monstrous 38 votes - enough to win any other Brownlow count in the history of the award.

But similarly to last year - when he polled 28 votes behind winner Lachie Neale on 31 - the 21-year-old missed out on taking home Charlie.

He could hardly complain though when an apparent case of mistaken identity appeared to give him one vote he shouldn’t have received.

Nick (left) and brother Josh Daicos at the Brownlow count - surely the lack of a beard makes it easy enough to tell them apart? (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

It came in round 13 when the Pies comfortably defeated Melbourne in the King’s Birthday game.

Jack Crisp polled three votes as expected. Both coaches agreed he was the best player on the ground in the wake of the game.

But then surprisingly came John Noble and Daicos. According to the AFL Player Ratings Noble (two votes) was the 24th best player on the ground, while Daicos (one vote) was 16th.

Daicos was notably subbed out of the game with just 15 disposals and it was hard not to believe the umpires had confused him with brother Josh, who had a game-high 34 disposals, and per the coaches, was the second-best player on the ground (seven coaches votes).

The decision will do nothing to temper criticism from rival fans about Daicos being treated like the league’s golden child, but his brother wasn’t the only one on the end of a rough decision.

As one footy stats guru noted on X, there were 18 occasions where players were judged to be best-on-ground by both coaches but failed to make the umpires’ top three.

There were also 17 occasions where the player who received three votes from the umpires failed to make the top five of either coach.

Port Adelaide midfielder Zak Butters - who finished third behind Cripps and Nick Daicos - was the biggest beneficiary. Three times he received three votes from the umpires in games the coaches ignored him.

In contrast, Marcus Bontempelli appeared to win the award for most overlooked.

Marcus Bontempelli probably prefers to have the regard of his peers. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The Bulldogs skipper - who was picked by his peers as the player of the season - finished an astonishing 26 votes behind Cripps.

He was robbed a few times but the most egregious came in round two against Gold Coast and round eight against Hawthorn.

Bont had 32 disposals, two goals and two goal assists against the Suns and was clearly best-on, at worst second. Against the Hawks he had the best game of anyone all weekend per the Player Ratings, with 26 disposals, 16 contested possessions, 11 score involvements and two goals.

In other eye-poppers, Sam Berry was named best-on-ground for the Crows in a round 22 win against the Bulldogs despite not being named in either coach’s best five players.

And Melbourne’s Harrison Petty grabbed three votes from the umps for a 13-disposal one-goal effort in round eight against Geelong in a game where Max Holmes (one vote) appeared to be the consensus pick.

There was also of course the annual shunning of the league’s best key defenders. Carlton’s Jacob Weitering and West Coast’s Jeremy McGovern - named in the key posts in the All-Australian team - both completed the evening without hearing their names called at all.

But we’ve learned to expect that.

- with foxsports.com.au’s Max Laughton