Lachie Neale’s 26-vote Brownlow haul eclipses Brisbane’s trio of ‘Charlie’ winners

Lachie Neale is destined to become Brisbane’s next great after shattering a 17-year record held by triple-premiership Lion and Brownlow Medallist Simon Black.

Lachie Neale may not have pocketed ‘Charlie’ this time around but the Brisbane star still managed to create club history at the 2019 Brownlow Medal awards night.

Neale, who finished equal third alongside Carlton captain Patrick Cripps, received 26 votes to go past premiership great Simon Black and set a new record for most votes tallied by a Lions player in a season.

The 26-year-old looked well in the race after a best-on-ground performance in Brisbane’s Round 19 win over Hawthorn placed him just four votes behind former Dockers teammate and eventual winner Nat Fyfe.

Lachie Neale arrives with wife Julie at the Brownlow Medal, where he polled 26 votes to finish third. Picture: Kelly Defina

But Neale’s teammates were the ones in the limelight between Rounds 20 and 22 with Charlie Cameron, Jarryd Lyons, Mitch Robinson and Dayne Zorko starring to leave the midfielder stranded on 23 votes before producing another best-on ground effort against Richmond in Round 23 to overtake Black’s Brownlow Medal-winning haul of 25 votes in 2002.

Neale’s 26 votes also eclipsed Brisbane’s two remaining ‘Charlie’ winners with Jason Akermanis (2001) and Michael Voss (1996) polling 23 and 21 votes respectively.

The midfielder edged Black in another category as well, setting new club records for both disposals in a season (742) and disposals in a game (51), but shook off comparisons to his childhood idol after learning of his new milestone.

Three legendary Lions and Brownlow Medallists — Simon Black, Jason Akermanis and Michael Voss. While their legacy is unmatched, Neale’s 2019 season has already eclipsed their individual feats.

“I suppose my game is built around getting the footy and set up teammates and what not so to be amongst names like Simon Black and Nigel Lappin is pretty humbling,” Neale said.

“Blacky is a champion of the game and I looked up to him growing up so I can’t really believe that I’m ahead of him but it’s probably a different game to when he played as well.”

Zorko’s stellar season was also thrown into light with the skipper polling 19 votes to finish 10th in the medal count and cement his eighth on the club’s all-time Brownlow votes list while former Sun Jarryd Lyons was Brisbane’s next best with 13 votes.

Dayne Zorko (left) and Neale were Brisbane’s highest polling players at Monday night’s Brownlow festivities. Picture: Darren England

Cameron’s stellar August fortnight saw him bag a maximum six votes against Gold Coast and Geelong to finish inside the top 50 with 11 votes overall as Eric Hipwood (6 votes) and Hugh McCluggage (5 votes) recorded career-best tallies.

Mitch Robinson (5 votes), Lincoln McCarthy (2 votes) and the ineligible Harris Andrews (2 votes) were Brisbane’s next best while Jarrod Berry earned just his second ever Brownlow vote in the Lions’ Round 2 win over North Melbourne.

All-Australian Cameron also finished third on the Coleman Medal count with a personal record of 54 goals for the season.

Originally published as Lachie Neale’s 26-vote Brownlow haul eclipses Brisbane’s trio of ‘Charlie’ winners