2024 Brownlow Medal Wrap Up
Patrick Cripps makes history as he claims his second Brownlow Medal.
On Monday night the AFL awarded the 2024 Brownlow Medal to Carlton’s Patrick Cripps, 100 years after former Geelong player Edward “Carji” Greeves won the first iteration of the award.
Cripps won the count for the second time with an unbelievable 45 votes, ahead of Collingwood’s Nick Daicos (38 votes) and Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters (29 votes).
Cripps broke Dustin Martin and Ollie Wines’ record of 36 votes in a single season with three votes in the Blues’ round 21 loss to the Magpies.
He then passed 40 votes with a three-vote performance against West Coast in the penultimate round of the home and away season and put an emphatic mark on his record-setting night with a further three votes against St Kilda in the Blues’ final game of the season.
The Carlton skipper collected 12 best on ground performances, surpassing Dustin Martin’s 11 three vote haul in 2017.
He was awarded the medal by his coach, Michael Voss, who shared the 1996 Brownlow Medal with James Hird.
Let’s be serious for a minute
Melbourne’s Christian Petracca jumped out of the blocks, polling in four of his first five games to lead the count with 10 votes after round 5, ahead of Fremantle’s Caleb Serong (nine votes, three best on grounds) and Gold Coast’s Matt Rowell (nine votes, two best on grounds).
Sydney’s Chad Warner and Isaac Heeney also started well, sitting in a five-way tie for fourth with eight votes, with Warner polling in each of the first four games of the season.
But perhaps the early surprise of the evening was Geelong’s Tanner Bruhn, who had collected seven votes to round 5 despite the Cats having a bye in Opening Round and the youngster not featuring in their round 2 clash against Adelaide.
The Brownlow leaderboard saw a reasonable amount of movement between rounds 5 and 10, with the ineligible Heeney, who had the bye in round 5, polling 3-3-2-3-2 in the next five games to lead the count on 21 votes.
Carlton skipper Patrick Cripps, Warner, and Rowell weren’t too far behind, featuring in a three-way tie for second with 16 votes each. Collingwood’s Nick Daicos also began to make his move, polling eight out of a possible nine votes in rounds 8, 9, and 10 to sit on 12 votes.
Rounds 11 through 15 belonged to Cripps, polling 11 votes across four games (Carlton had the bye in round 14) to pull away from the pack on 27 votes. His form during this stretch of games had many people suggesting he would move well past Martin and Wines’ record of 36 votes in a single season – and some suggesting he would even break the 40-vote barrier.
Heeney, who failed to poll between rounds 11 and 15, remained in second place with 21 votes, just ahead of teammate Chad Warner (who only polled in two of the four games the Swans played in this five-week period) on 20 votes.
Daicos continued to make his move, with seven votes in four games (Collingwood had the bye in round 15) – but only one best on ground – to sit fourth with 19 votes. The youngest son of the Macedonian marvel had received votes in as many games as Cripps had to this point of the season, but only had three 3-votes games compared to Cripps’ seven.
Cripps continued to poll strongly in rounds 16-20 (36 votes), but Daicos remained within striking distance (28 votes).
Cripps and Daicos both polled three votes in their respective round 16 games, one vote each in round 17, and two votes each in round 18.
Daicos failed to poll in round 19, while Cripps picked up his ninth three votes. However, Daicos cut Cripps’ lead back to eight votes with a best on ground performance in round 20 and the Carlton captain failing to record a vote.
Heeney, who was suspended in the Swans’ round 17 loss against St Kilda, polled one vote despite ending up in the umpire’s notebook. His 22 votes saw him sit level with Warner, with the pair one vote behind teammate Errol Gulden on 23 votes, who collected eight votes in rounds 17, 18, and 19.
Daicos moved even closer to Cripps when he polled two votes in Scott Pendlebury’s 400th game, but Cripps took the three votes to extend his lead to nine votes, meaning the Blues skipper couldn’t be beaten and would finish the night as a two-time Brownlow Medallist.
Cripps failed to poll in round 22 when Carlton were soundly beaten by Hawthorn.
All eyes then turned to Daicos’ performance against Sydney to see if he could poll the required three votes to keep his chance at a first “Charlie” alive, but only received two votes.
Cripps could not be caught with two rounds left to play.
It wasn’t for lack of trying from Daicos, however, with the Collingwood superstar also polling three votes in each of his last two games – and 19 votes in his last nine – to also break the 36-vote record.
Daicos has had an incredible first two seasons in the AFL, as pointed out by journo Daniel Cherny. Surely it will only be a matter of time before he wins a Brownlow of his own.
And now for the fun stuff
While there has been plenty of coverage form the mainstream media on some of the more obvious parts of the count – the overall winner, most votes for each club, etc. – there are still plenty of other interesting results to keep track of that you might have missed.
Unique votegetters
One hundred and ninety-six players received at least one Brownlow vote this year, a decrease on the 201 players who polled in 2023 and the 207 players who polled in 2022. This was the lowest number of players to poll since 2010, when 197 players had their name called on football’s night of nights.
Polling votes on debut
No player polled a Brownlow vote on debut this season, meaning we will have to wait for next year to see who will be the 50th player since 1984 to do so.
Western Bulldogs young gun Ryley Sanders narrowly missed out on being the first player to poll on debut in 2024, having to settle for joining the slightly less elite club after polling one vote in his second game against the Gold Coast Suns.
And despite all the hype around West Coast’s Harley Reid, the 2023 number 1 overall pick was not awarded a vote until his fourth career game (round 4 v Sydney).
However, Reid backed it up the following round with two votes in the Derby in round 5 and registered his first three vote game in round 10 against Melbourne (the same game where he won Goal of the Year for his three-bounce effort out of the centre).
Last year Harry Sheezel became the 49th player to achieve this feat, collecting 34 disposals, nine marks, and one vote against West Coast in round 1.
The last player to poll two votes on debut was Nic Martin in the first round of the 2022 season, while the last player to be judged best on ground in their debut game was Dean Polo in round 6, 2006.
Most ‘x’ without a vote
Sometimes a great individual performance – such as a bag of goals or a truckload of possessions – is rewarded with votes from the umpires.
For example, Joel Amartey’s nine goal effort against Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval in round 14 was recognised with the three votes.
But this isn’t always the case.
The table below displays a list of players who recorded the most of a particular statistic in a single game this season without receiving a Brownlow vote for their efforts.
The historical records for these statistics (since 1984) are displayed in the table below.
The 23rd man
Three players joined the “Brownlow votes in a game where they were subbed off” club in 2024 – Lachie Neale, Nick Daicos, and Zac Butters – meaning this exclusive group has 14 members.
Neale received one vote for his 27 disposals and seven clearances in round 4 against North Melbourne, Daicos was awarded one vote after his 15-disposal effort against Melbourne in round 15, and Butters was given the three votes against the Bulldogs in round 17 after collecting 33 disposals, six clearances, and a goal.
No player polled Brownlow votes after starting as the substitute this year. The last player to achieve this feat was Oliver Henry in round 10, 2022.
Making the most of your opportunities
Port Adelaide’s Jason Horne-Francis spent the least amount of time on ground in a game and still polled votes in 2024 (two votes for 62% game time in round 4), ahead of Tanner Bruhn (three votes in 63% game time, round 3).
This is well short of the all-time record holder Joel Amartey’s effort, who earned the three votes in round 2, 2023 after kicking four goals from 11 disposals in only 50% game time.
Two games, six votes
Ten players played “perfect” games against opponents in 2024, polling the maximum six votes if teams faced off twice over the course of the home and away season.
It’s not that much of a surprise to see that the 2024 Brownlow Medallist, Patrick Cripps, achieved this feat twice, claiming six votes from two games against North Melbourne and Richmond.
The other nine players with “perfect” games in 2024 were:
Caleb Serong (v Melbourne)
Errol Gulden (v Greater Western Sydney)
Isaac Heeney (v Essendon)
Jai Newcombe (v North Melbourne)
Josh Dunkley (v Melbourne)
Matt Rowell (v Richmond)
Rowan Marshall (v Geelong)
Tom Green (v Brisbane)
Tom Liberatore (v Geelong)
Thanks for reading! The timeframe of this stat is limited based on what data are freely/easily available and/or accessible. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you spot any errors in what I have presented.