Re: Brownlow Medal 2022
Reply #92 –
It's interesting, apparently more players polled in losing teams in this years Brownlow than ever before, apparently the trend about polling if you win is only a very recent trend. Maybe they mean the AFL era. The report sounded to me like a disgruntled punter.
Before the two or more umpires it was quite common for players to poll well in losing sides. This seems to be confirmed by my memory, guys like Skilton, Harvey, Stewart, Bedford or Murray it was pretty common for lowly VFL teams to claim the Brownlow. Then the AFL era changed it, and teams had to be winning before a player had a chance. But it feels to me like it was the AFL era that was delivering the artificial results, not the past.
I was chatting with a guy at the weekend who is connected with umpire development, he made an interesting comment about the pending changes and the long term trends. He said the AFL have worked out that the best umpires are not always AFL capable, not because of the decision making but because they are physically unable to keep up with play. He said this is a big driving force in the pending changes towards more umpires. You'll basically have a panel of top class umpires capable of officiating multiple games each and every weekend. I'm sure that will change the Brownlow voting as well.
It makes more sense for the teams that lose to have better individuals in the modern game. Collingwood epitomise this, they are a death by a thousand cuts team. Their best players are not necessarily amazing footballers by league standards. Its their worst ones that influence games at the right moments that make the difference.
Rightly or wrongly, Carlton STILL have the issue where there are about 6 or 7 key performers that decide our fate on game day. We have seen that list grow this season, and a few surprise players stepping up at times to help us get across the line, but we are still very reliant on Cripps, Walsh, Weitering, Docherty, Mckay and Curnow before we get the W. IF any of those players don't fire, we generally have a tough day at the office.
Cripps has been an amazing player in a crap team since 2014. He has been brownlow worthy for at least 3 of those seasons, and missed out purely because we didnt win enough games for him to get the BOG votes, but he was still worthy. The reasons behind that had more to do with the rest of the team and how bad they were than him.