Hard to take the Brownlow seriously
Despite being the most prestigious award for individual players in the competition, the Brownlow Medal is quickly becoming another boring event and the award itself has less credibility every passing season. First and foremost – Congratulations to Adam Cooney on winning the Brownlow Medal, there is no doubt he had a great season with the Bulldogs. But was he the fairest and best in the competition this season? No. I’ll admit i did have a dip on Ablett to win at reasonable odds hence my disappointment but as a football lover and watcher i have no doubt in my mind that Gary Ablett Jnr was the stand out player in the comp this season and last. I know statistics don’t tell the full story of a player but when you compare the statistics of Ablett and Cooney, then watch the players in action there is no doubt Ablett is a better player and had a better season. Gary had every right to be a little disappointed when he failed to poll votes in the last round and fell two votes short of taking home Charlie. By now we already know its a midfielder medal and accept it, for a forward to poll votes they have to play a role up the ground or kick bags of 7 goals plus. A defender has to keep a star forward goal-less and still have a big influence creating play our of the backline. If you’re a ruckman then forget about polling votes completely. Take the All-Australian ruckman Dean Cox for example. Cox averaged over 22 disposals & 26 hitouts per game and only managed to poll 3 votes despite clearly being West Coasts best player this season. In the Eagles round 16 lose to the Lions Cox had a game high 36 disposals and completely dominated the ruck with 27 hitouts, not a vote in sight. This happened on a number of occasions throughout the year. Adam Goodes, where do I start, its been obvious in previous years that the umpires like to give Goodes votes. But polling a total of 21 and coming 4th overall this season is a joke. 9 out 10 Swans supporters will tell you the same thing, the one who doesn’t would be the stereotypical Swans fan who turns up to games and claps when the Swans score a behind. Out of all the teams its fair to say it would be hardest to poll votes when you play Geelong, for starters they only lost one game all season and on top of that they have a long list of gun players. In round 5 the Swans went down to Geelong by 42 points, Goodes polled two votes with the amazing figures of 14 disposals, no goals & only 5 hitouts. 15 Cats and 11 Swans equalled or had more disposals than Goodes. Explains itself. In most cases the umpires call it as they see it, I don’t have a problem with that. But in modern day football where the umpires have become to precious that they have not only resorted to award free kicks and 50 metre penalties for swearing but they sunk so low they gave away a 50m penalty this season for a player who pointed at an umpire, what a joke. This is likely to be under the instruction of the AFL but the umpires are penalising the best players in the game for incidents like these. Swearing and sledging does not take anything away from the ‘fairest’ aspect of the medal. If the umpires want to continue penalising players for such minor incidents then the Brownlow will not remain the most prestigious award for much longer. Moving past the farce that is the medal count… Thankfully in Melbourne the count was shown live however footy fans in Western Australia and Queensland had to watch an extremely delayed telecast. I hope those who stayed up to watch it in the early hours of the morning to watch it in Queensland didn’t watch Channel 10′s late news program that revealed the winner before the count had been aired. It all started badly when Kate Ceberano who is well past her used by date performed a poor cover of ‘Let me entertain you’ trying her best to get the crowd involved and failing. Between all the ads the vote count finally got under way but viewers across Australia were left confused when the CEO of the AFL was reading out the wrong votes. You wouldn’t think it would be hard to pickup the right envelop for the first round and read out the votes correctly. This was a major blunder that really made the night look unprofessional and second class. The CEO would have felt mighty embarrassed when a room full of footballers were laughing at the mistake he made. I think I speak for most people when I say its always good to hear a feel good story about community football and the people that devote there lives to community football but the Brownlow Medal is not the right time to acknowledge these people, its a time to celebrate the year that these individuals had on the field. Save the community stuff for the pre-season or the rising star award ceremony. At the end of the count we obviously saw the look of disappointment on Abletts face, which i think is fair enough considering he has been favourite to win the medal two years running only to fall short both times. The expectation on him to win a Brownlow Medal now is huge and there’s no wonder he had high hopes of winning it when he was almost universally recognised as the best player in the competition by the media and after already winning the MVP selected by his peers. I thought it was ridiculous that they set him up for an interview midway through the count showing footage of him as a 14 year old. They guy has so much expectation on his shoulders not to mention he’s playing in a Grand Final on Saturday, its the last thing he needed. It was bad enough when the AFL enforced a black tie dress code or players would be refused entry but now it appears as if they are cracking down on what players do once they’re inside. In previous years players of all clubs would muck around a bit whenever the camera was at their table, we even heard of games where they had to drink whenever they got on camera. This year none of that happened and it really took away a lot of the entertainment from the night from a home viewers point of view. That just about wraps up my rant on the most boring Brownlow count in recent years. Next year hopefully the AFL will make it more entertaining for the home viewer, because I can’t see them changing the voting system any time soon.
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September 23, 2008 at 10:01 pm
The Brownlow medal has lost its prestige and credibility.
Adam Cooney is a very good footballer who I rate highly. Adam Cooney is NOT the caliber of a Brownlow-medallist player. His win last night is the biggest disgrace to the Brownlow medal since Shane Woewoedin won it in 2000.
Funnily enough, the winner of this year’s Brownlow was also decided by the same group of men who ridiculously deemed that Will Minson was the closest man to the contest when Brian Lake marked on the siren against Richmond earlier this year; who deemed that Jimmy Bartel was a 10-vote player in 2008; who deemed that Adam Goodes and Simon Black were in the top 5 players of the year; who deemed that Adam Goodes was second-best afield against Geelong in Round 5 when Cameron Ling smashed him; who deemed that Boomer Harvey’s 2007 season was greater than his 2008; and the list goes on and on and on.
I can honestly say that I respect the AFL umpires – people don’t take the time to understand how much pressure they are consistently under and how much flack they cop. Unlike some other sports, they don’t get the benefit of replays: they make their decisions on the spot in a freakishly high-paced sport.
But umpires should not decide the Brownlow, and 2008 is the ‘etch-it-in-stone’ proof.
Adam Cooney would struggle to make the list of 2008′s top 10 AFL players. He was NOT the best and fairest player this year – yes, you’ll encounter opinions everywhere, but just as predominant in today’s society is the importance of facts. This is one of them.
Congratulations to the man, I’d be rapt if I were him. But a part of me would be disappointed; a little self-conscious. “Should I really have this medal around my neck?” is that seed of doubt that over time, will grow in his mind. And the general public’s outrage at his questionable and charitable victory will be the spring rain on that seed.
Dogs fans everywhere would be ecstatic, and Cooney will be written into the history books. But alongside his name on the list of Brownlow medalists, there should be an asterisk: an asterisk that indicates that Adam Cooney is a paper champion – and only a paper champion – just like Woewoedin.
I question the AFL’s integrity. People need to understand that the AFL is as much a business as it is a sport. Try this on: the Dogs have been a struggling franchise for the last decade. What better way to promote its marketability and growth into a profitable franchise, than to whack a Charlie on one of its young guns and future leaders?
Geelong’s stranglehold and dominance of the competition is not healthy for the AFL. If they are continuously raking in dominant wins, premierships, brownlows, MVP awards, etc, then supporters of other clubs will eventually get fed up, lose hope, and wait to spend their hard-earned money until the storm has passed. It’s like the Brisbane era of 2001-’03 which carried over to ’04. By the end of it, people were tired of seeing the same thing over and over and for a while, had abandoned hope, which equals a loss in $$$ for Mr Demetriou.
I believe the AFL have thrown the Dogs a bone to promote the hope and pride in their long-suffering supporters, and to inspire them to open their wallets. Just look at how proud the Geelong-folk were of Jimmy Bartel last year.
The AFLPA’s MVP award, i.e. the Leigh Matthews trophy, is the new Brownlow medal; the new highest individual honour that a player can receive. It is decided by a large group of people who all eat, sleep and breathe Australian Rules Football. These men know exactly what the game is about and what needs to be done to succeed. They have time to thoroughly scrutinise and mentally digest individual performances, and as a result, accurately crown the best player in the competition – hence Gary Ablett Jr’s back-to-back victories in ’07 and ’08.
On the other hand, Brownlow votes are cast on the spur of the moment by impressionable, star-struck men who seem to treat Brownlow votes as if they were SMS votes for their favourite Australian Idol contendor. This has no credibility.
Adam Cooney’s Brownlow medal victory has done to the medal’s prestige, honour and integrity, what paint stripper would do to the Mona Lisa.
Enjoy your gift Adam; but I’d much rather my competitors and own peers respect my football ability, than a group of predisposed puppets of the AFL’s agenda.
September 24, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I think the brownlow has lost is prestige, Cooney was not the best player by a long shot, I am a pies supporter, but I do wonder if Ablett is paying for his fathers’ sins. He was by far and away a better player than Cooney, how could he not poll in the last game, ridiculous. Adam Goodes, well I ask you, even his coach thought he was below his best, but he is flashy, and gets noticed. For Bartel, Riewaldt and Richo I feel so sad they deserved more from the umpires. To me, umpires are no longer in a position to judge this award, the game is too fast, they struggle to get the rules consistent, let alone find the best and fairest player on the day. It might be time for the AFL board to take the award over.
October 9, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I think that Adam Cooney was very deserving and is a very good player.!!!
February 25, 2010 at 4:22 pm
That is definitely excellent and so nicely written. Generally I do not ever make comments on post on blogs, However , I have got to give you props on this one. Superb blog