Brisbane captain Dayne Zorko isn’t sure whether umpires are the right party to be voting on the AFL’s most prestigious award – the Brownlow Medal.
The award has been called into question over the last 24 hours, with news an umpire has been arrested for allegedly leaking voting information, which resulted in suspicious betting activity.
Zorko wonders whether the award would be best suited being judged by an independent panel or the media, given how much umpires have to worry about during games as it is.
“I don’t know how the information gets out or who or what is involved, but it’s not a great look,” the Lions skipper told SEN’s Pat and Heals.
“The social media stuff that I’ve been reading and sifting through is they’re saying this is another reason why umpires shouldn’t have to vote straight after the game. Leave it up to an expert panel to decide, don’t leave it up to the umpires and take that responsibility off them.
“It used to be just one umpire and they’d make their call after the game. Now there’s three (field umpires) and next year there’s going to be four by the sounds of things.
“(Umpires are trying to watch) everything that goes on with the game, rule changes, decisions in the moment and they’re all in different thirds of the ground so you’re not actually seeing who is the most influential the whole time in my opinion.
“I agree, I’d give it (Brownlow voting) to someone who has been watching the game and sitting up high and understands what’s happened throughout the whole game and decide from there.”