‘It is what it is’: Umpire on Brownlow frustration
AFL boss Andrew Dillon says the league has “no plans” to make any changes to the Brownlow voting system or who awards them after a runaway count on Monday night.
Dillon said offering match statistics to the umpires at the end of each game would again be “looked at” in the off-season as he denied umpires had told the league they wanted access for award voting at the end of 2023.
He said the umpires were “trusted implicitly” to deliberate over the votes without the stats.
“We trust our umpires implicitly, they’re professional, elite athletes and incredible decision makers,” Dillon said.
“In relation to the stats, it’s something that we look at at the end of each year.
“We spoke to the umpiring group at the end of last season, and the consensus from the umpires was that they were comfortable making the calls on the ‘3-2-1’ without access to the statistics. Again, at the end of the year we will review all the rules and regulations.”
The AFL chief executive said he was not concerned by the inflation in polling numbers after Brownlow medallist Patrick Cripps (45 votes) and runner-up Nick Daicos (38) surpassed Dustin Martin and Ollie Wines’ 36-vote hauls in 2017 and 2021 respectively.
“The fact that Patrick Cripps was the winner of the Brownlow … he’s had an incredible season, I don’t really get too much caught up in the number of votes awarded,” Dillon said.
“Nick Daicos also had an incredible season, polling 38 votes … the Brownlow Medal has been around for 100 years, we’ve got no plans to change the ‘3-2-1’, and we’ve got no plans to change the umpires awarding the fairest and best player.”
Grand final debutant umpire Nick Foot would not say whether he would prefer access to the stats but called Cripps, whose 45 votes was a record, a “deserving winner”.
“Look, the Brownlow voting, it is what it is … all I can say about the Brownlow is that Patrick Cripps was a very deserving winner on Monday night,” Foot told reporters on Wednesday.
“I don’t think anyone can argue that result, and I think it was the right result for the season.”
Foot was named to officiate in Saturday’s game alongside veterans Matt Stevic and Simon Meredith, and Craig Fleer in his second grand final.
Meredith, Foot and Fleer all presided over the Geelong-Brisbane preliminary final, while Stevic was the sole umpire in the Sydney-Port Adelaide match to be picked for the decider.
