Champion Data Brownlow Tracker: Top 20 finishers revealed

The 2021 Brownlow Medal is touted as the closest race in recent history, though one star might make a mockery of those predictions.

Chris Cavanagh

2 min read

September 18, 2021 - 10:39PM

News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom

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The final results are in — Port Adelaide’s Ollie Wines will win this year’s Brownlow Medal.

That is the view of Champion Data’s Brownlow Tracker, which has correctly forecast five of the past six winners of the award.

The tracker has Wines on 30.5 votes, well clear of St Kilda captain Jack Steele (24.6 votes) and Western Bulldogs onballer Jack Macrae (24.5 votes).

Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli, who had been favourite with bookmaker TAB for much of the year, is tipped to finish fifth, while Melbourne skipper Max Gawn is expected to record a top-10 finish.

The predictions are calculated using not only each player’s individual statistics for a game but also the result of each match and the final winning margin.

A player’s Brownlow Medal polling history is also brought in to the final vote calculations.

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Champion Data’s Brownlow Medal tracker expects Port Adelaide’s Ollie Wines to win this year’s award. Picture: Tom Huntley

Wines polled only 10 Brownlow Medal votes to finish equal-20th in last year’s count but has taken his game to another level this season.

The 26-year-old midfield bull started the season at Brownlow Medal odds of $81 with TAB, but was wound into a $2.75 favourite after what many considered to be another three-vote game against Western Bulldogs in Round 23.

Wines’ performances this year have seen him nominated by coach Ken Hinkley as a “pretty clear” next captain of the Power.

He had served as co-captain for one season in 2019.

“Ollie was one of those players we probably put a lot of hype and pressure around, and he wanted to be absolutely everything to everyone,” Hinkley said in July.

“What he now knows really well is that he knows exactly what he brings to our football club, he’s done it unbelievably well every week this year, he’s in great form and he knows how play the game that suits Ollie best.

“He’s doing all those things you want your best players to do and he’s doing it for four quarters flat out every week.”

Wines has averaged 32.1 disposals, six clearances, 5.2 inside 50s, 443 metres gained and 6.4 score involvements this season.

He scored 100 or more KFC SuperCoach ranking points in 13 of his past 14 games to finish the home-and-away campaign, for an overall average of 112 points across his 22 matches.