The reaction to Patrick Cripps’ massive Brownlow Medal haul has been two-fold.
The Carlton midfielder polled 45 votes to win his second Best & Fairest, beating Collingwood’s Nick Daicos on 38 votes – who would have also broken the previous record of 36 held by Dustin Martin and Ollie Wines.
In fact, 12 players were over the 20-vote mark.
The official AFL community is celebrating the record achievement, numbers that won’t be forgotten for many seasons ahead.
But some commentators and fans believe it’s too good to be true, questioning the ridiculously high number, using words such as “silliness”, “diabolical” and “cooked”, with some even joking that on this ‘luck’, the Carlton star will win the Norm Smith Medal in a Grand Final he’s not even playing.
Chief footy writer at the Herald Sun and host of AFL360 on Fox Footy Mark Robinson couldn’t agree more, telling RSN radio that while Cripps should be lauded as “a great ambassador for the game”, 45 votes was way too many.
“It doesn’t sit right,” Robbo said.
“Superstars and the promotion of superstars have taken over the game. The game is promoted so well in print and radio, and every week we talk about the best players – it’s got to have got into the psyche of the umpires.
“Paddy Cripps had a great year, but not 45 votes.
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“It just doesn’t make sense. I think we jumped the shark a bit last night. Not only that we had a number of individuals with a high number of votes.”
Footy fans on social media were more brutal in their assessment of this year’s version of AFL’s highest individual honour.
Melbourne player Lachie Hunter also posted from a player’s perspective – perhaps suggesting that the voting be taken out of the umpire’s hands, given those on ground don’t have a true assessment of form.
As much as the surprise and ridicule came online for Cripps’ enormous vote count, there was also shock and surprise that Marcus Bontempelli polled so low.
One of the leading contenders heading into the evening, many viewers were surprised when AFL CEO Andrew Dillon’s wife seemed to discount him on the pre-event red carpet.
“I would like to see Marcus Bontempelli, but I’ve been told he’s maybe he’s not in the mix. But we will see,” Amanda Dillon said on Channel 7 before the event.
It turned out she was right, the Western Bulldogs star only received 19 votes for the entire season – half of the tally that second-placed Daicos received. He wasn’t even the club’s top vote-getter, beaten by Adam Treloar on 26.
Fans believe that he was a bit stiff.
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