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 home and away season. Jimmy Bartel of the Geelong Football Club won the medal by polling twenty-nine votes during the 2007 AFL season.

Leading votegetters

won by seven votes, despite missing the final two games after having an appendectomy. polled the most votes of all teams with 108 total votes, although , and also had 16 players receive votes. 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.

PlayerVotes
1stJimmy Bartel 29
=2ndSimon Black
22
=2ndBrent Harvey 22
Daniel Kerr *22
4thSam Mitchell 21
=5thGary Ablett, Jr. 20
=5thDane Swan 20
Adam Goodes *20
7thScott Thompson 18
8thJonathan Brown 17
=9thNick Dal Santo 16
=9thLuke Hodge 16
=9thChris Judd 16
Shaun Burgoyne *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 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. 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 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.