Nichols Medal count thrown into chaos after alleged leaks and an ill-timed social media post

AFLNT boss Stuart Totham has apologised to the Darwin football community for a mistimed social media post that revealed the winner of the Nichols Medal halfway through the vote count

AFLNT Chief Executive Stuart Totham. Picture KATRINA BRIDGEFORD

AFLNT boss Stuart Totham has apologised to the Darwin football community for a mistimed social media post that revealed the winner of the Nichols Medal less than halfway through the vote count.

The post was taken down almost immediately, but it was enough time for several watchers to screenshot the names of joint winners Brodie Filo and Beau O’Connell.

The social media post came on top of an alleged leak days earlier by a third party on the winners of the Nichols and Gwynne medals that are awarded to the best and fairest players in men’s and women’s Premier League.

“We’re aware of an alleged leak of both the Nichols and Gwynne Medal results by a third part prior to the event,’’ Totham said.

“We’re really disappointed when we’ve got some very good people who manage the process of the vote counts, including (auditing and technology firm) Deloittes.

“So there is certainly a limited number of people that have access to the records and we’ll be investigating where it all fell down and go from there.’’

Totham blamed human error for the ill-timed media post and immediately apologised.

“We certainly apologise to the recipients of the medals and the general footy community for the accidental post, but it should not take away from the night itself,’’ he said.

“It was a fantastic celebration of the season that was and now we look forward to what should be a very interesting grand final between St Mary’s and Nightcliff.’’