2007 Brownlow Medal

The 2007 Brownlow Medal was the 80th year the award was presented to the player adjudged the fairest and best player during the Australian Football League (AFL) home and away season.[1] Jimmy Bartel of the Geelong Football Club won the medal by polling twenty-nine votes during the 2007 AFL season.[2]

2007 Brownlow Medal
2007 Brownlow Medallist, Jimmy Bartel
Date	24 September
Location	Crown Palladium
Hosted by	Bruce McAvaney
Winner	Jimmy Bartel (Geelong) 29 votes
Television/radio coverage
Network	Seven Network

Leading votegetters

Jimmy Bartel won by seven votes, despite missing the final two games after having an appendectomy.[3] Geelong polled the most votes of all teams with 108 total votes, although Port Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane also had 16 players receive votes.[4] Chris Judd was the early leader, setting the record for polling votes in the most consecutive games with votes in the first eight games, before not receiving another vote for the remainder of the season.[5]

	Player	Votes
1st	Jimmy Bartel (Geelong)	29
=2nd	Simon Black (Brisbane)	22
	Brent Harvey (Kangaroos)
	Daniel Kerr (West Coast)*	22
4th	Sam Mitchell (Hawthorn)	21
=5th	Gary Ablett, Jr. (Geelong)	20
	Dane Swan (Collingwood)
	Adam Goodes (Sydney)*	20
7th	Scott Thompson (Adelaide)	18
8th	Jonathan Brown (Brisbane)	17
=9th	Nick Dal Santo (St Kilda)	16
	Luke Hodge (Hawthorn)
	Chris Judd (West Coast)
	Shaun Burgoyne (Port Adelaide)*	16

* The player was ineligible to win the medal due to suspension by the AFL Tribunal during the year.

Voting procedure

The three field umpires (those umpires who control the flow of the game, as opposed to goal or boundary umpires) confer after each match and award three votes, two votes and one vote to the players they regard as the best, second best and third best in the match, respectively. The votes are kept secret until the awards night, and are read and tallied on the evening.

Controversy

The lack of votes for key forwards and backmen compared to midfielders was widely criticised, with some claiming that it is now only a midfielders medal.[6] The only non-midfielder in the top ten votegetters was Coleman Medalist, Jonathan Brown and pre-count second favourite and key defender, Chad Cornes who only polled 12 votes to finish outside the top 20.

Ineligible players

As the medal is awarded to the fairest and best player in the league, those who have been suspended during the season by the AFL Tribunal (or, who avoided suspension only because of a discount for a good record or an early guilty plea) are ineligible to win the award; however, they may still continue to poll votes. This caused some confusion, as with the points system in use, a player can be ineligible if they were found guilty, but due to points discounts from a previous good record or guilty plea, they were not actually suspended during the year. In the weeks before the count it was discovered that Brett Kirk was ineligible due to a guilty plea in round 8, but remained active in the betting markets for the remainder of the season.[7]

Heath Black (Fremantle) Nathan Bock (Adelaide) Amon Buchanan (Sydney) Shaun Burgoyne (Port Adelaide) Josh Carr (Fremantle) Adam Cooney (Western Bulldogs) Ryan Crowley (Fremantle) Aaron Davey (Melbourne) Ben Dixon (Hawthorn) Nathan Eagleton (Western Bulldogs) Dustin Fletcher (Essendon) Fraser Gehrig (St Kilda) Adam Goodes (Sydney)

Ben Holland (Melbourne) Rhan Hooper (Brisbane Lions) Ben Johnson (Collingwood) Daniel Kerr (West Coast) Brett Kirk (Sydney) Anthony Rocca (Collingwood) Jason Roe (Brisbane Lions) Dean Solomon (Fremantle) Colin Sylvia (Melbourne) Damon White (Port Adelaide) Lance Whitnall (Carlton) Michael Wilson (Port Adelaide)

Source[8]

References

1. Lovett, Michael, ed. (2009). AFL Record Season Guide 2009. Docklands, Victoria: Slattery Media Group. p. 496. ISBN 978-0-9805162-6-5.
2. "2007 Brownlow Medal". AFL Tables. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
3. Australian Associated Press (25 September 2007). "Geelong's Bartel wins Brownlow Medal". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 19 February 2013.
4. "MWB Analysis at Footstats". Footy Stats. 2007. Archived from the original on 10 November 2007.
5. Williams, Rebecca (25 September 2007). "Chris Judd count's blistering beginning". Herald Sun. News Corp Australia.
6. Blake, Martin (26 September 2007). "Browned off by midfielder's medal". The Age. Fairfax Media.
7. Manley, Michael; Hamilton, Adam (14 September 2007). "Brownlow Medal bungle grows". Herald Sun. News Corp Australia.
8. "Brownlow count: club by club". The Australian. News Corp Australia. 25 September 2007.