AFL Brownlow Medal betting scandal: Two red-flag games at centre of investigation
One of Collingwood’s biggest blockbusters of the year has been embroiled in the umpire betting scandal due to votes which caused controversy and raised alarm bells.
Two games where field umpire Michael Pell was an emergency umpire are at the centre of the Brownlow Medal voting leak scandal.
While police investigators scrutinised the 16 games Pell officiated throughout the 2022 season, red flags were also raised about when he was the back-up fourth umpire where he was present during the Brownlow voting discussion after the game.
The three field umpires can choose to confer with the emergency umpire who while they don’t have any input into the final voting, they are aware of the final decision.
Pell was the emergency umpire for the Round 13 Queen’s Birthday Clash between Collingwood and Melbourne which threw up some voting controversy at the time.
Magpies forward Brody Mihocek was the surprise winner of the three votes on Brownlow Medal night with his 16 disposals and four goals edging out Demons superstar Clayton Oliver who on the day was awarded the Neale Daniher Trophy for his 43-possession game.
Many thought Collingwood ruckman Mason Cox - who the umpires gave one Brownlow Medal vote to - was best-on-ground after a stellar second half turned the game with 21 touches, eight marks, nine hitouts and a goal.
The other game which raised suspicion was the Round 23 clash between St Kilda and Sydney where retiring veteran Dan Hannebery surprised many by getting the three Brownlow votes for 30 disposals, six tackles and seven clearances in the Saints loss.
No Swans players featured with Ben Long getting two votes and St Kilda captain Jack Steele one vote. Sydney forward Isaac Heeney was thought to be desperately unlucky after collecting 23 disposals, six marks and two goals.
In both of these games the surprise nature of the Brownlow voting put them front and square in the eyes of the betting agencies regarding any suspicious activity.
RADICAL PLAN TO TAKE BROWNLOW OUT OF UMPIRES’ HANDS
Sam Landsberger
A hand-picked panel of experts would be paid to attend AFL matches and cast 5-4-3-2-1 votes on the Brownlow Medal under a radical revamp floated by Grant Thomas.
The independent voters could also be afforded the opportunity to travel home and watch a replay on TV to reaffirm what they saw live before submitting their votes.
Expanding the voting from 3-2-1 to 5-4-3-2-1 would help prevent key defenders, forwards and ruckmen getting overlooked, according to Thomas, who admitted it was hard to ignore midfielders when a dozen of them racked up huge numbers in most games.
The former St Kilda coach stressed it wasn’t about “ripping” the honour of awarding the game’s most prestigious medal away from umpires, but simply to ease the burden placed on them on matchday.
“This is no criticism of umpires. This is just that if the players don’t know (who the best players were), umpires don’t know either because their focus and concentration is so rigid towards applying the rules and the interpretation and the tough job they’ve got,” Thomas told the Herald Sun on Tuesday.
“How on earth can they differentiate, other than to grab the stats sheet at the end of the game and have a look and then give the votes?
“I just think that at this juncture - nothing to do with fraud, nothing to do with dishonesty and nothing to do with the accusations levelled at the current umpire, because that is always vulnerable and susceptible irrespective of what human being you get to do this role.
“But if we want certainty, if we want exclusivity and if we want purity to an award of our best player and our best players, I just think we need to be very clinical and forensic about the sort of criteria we apply to that.”
Thomas said 46 out of this year’s top 50 vote-getters were midfielders and questioned how All-Australian defenders Steven May and Brayden Maynard, along with Darcy Moore, did not poll a single vote this year.
“I’m sort of more talking about the next 15 or 20 places (after a clear winner) and the lack of recognition for other performances,” Thomas said.
Geelong’s Jeremy Cameron (19 votes) was the only key position star to poll 15 or more votes this season.
Thomas said there were “hundreds and hundreds of men and women” who were qualified to cast votes that would deliver a more balanced medal count.
Always confused as to why umpires decide the Brownlow. You would think someone watching the game would have a better idea the impact someone has than someone that should be busy adjudicating the game live. pic.twitter.com/GChcIcF9IU
— Mason Cox (@masonsixtencox) November 14, 2022
He suggested long-time recruiter Matt Rendell, the man who drafted Patrick Dangerfield, as a potential voter.
“Finding the type of people is very easy,” Thomas said.
“There might be some former coaches from a decade ago, there might be some former players, there might be some former administrators, it might be some people that are from other leagues or other levels that people have high regard for in their ability to understand football.
“No one who’s currently involved should be a part of it.
“Matt Rendell for arguments sake. People say, ‘Oh, he was your assistant coach’. But Matty has been an administrator, he’s been a player, a captain, he’s been an assistant coach and also in recruiting and now he’s not doing anything in AFL.
“I speak to ‘Bundy’ all the time and he still opens my eyes up to football. I just think someone that’s so invested in the game is him and loves it, for him to go to a game like he did with recruiting - and probably former recruiting guys are really good people to do it.
“There’s only nine games a weekend. That means you’ve got nine people.
“You’ve probably got 15 to choose from and they rotate or you might have 30 and they rotate, but I don’t think it’d be too difficult and I don’t think it would have to be too heavily funded.
“It’s not a matter of ripping it away from the umpires, it’s a matter of just logically and respectfully understanding that you guys shouldn’t be able to do it because if you can do it you’re actually not concentrating on your job.
“If a player walks off the ground in nine out of 10 games and he really doesn’t know who the best three players were and he’s a player, how the hell can an umpire who’s just maniacally focused on adjudication of rules and concentrating?”
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