Why last night's Brownlow Medal was both astonishing and slightly vexing

A wonderful winner. An astonishing count.

On our table the phenomenal polling power of Patrick Cripps drew comparisons to Brian Lara’s 501 and Pride Of Jenni’s exploits in the Queen Elizabeth.

At Round 12 came the realisation he might poll 40 votes, by the end that number was 45.

Nick Daicos’ 38 votes would have won every Brownlow in history… last night he was beaten by 7.

Greg Williams first touched the magical 30-vote mark 30 years ago… Cripps got there in Round 16. He broke the all-time record in Round 19.

In the past 15 years there’s been an incredible concentration of votes awarded to the stars of the game. Last night we turbo-charged to a superstar league.

When Dustin Martin set the modern-day record at 36 votes in 2017 he swept the MVP, the Coaches Award and the Brownlow Medal. Leigh Matthews ordained it as good an individual season as the game had ever seen. Only Leigh’s own 1977 season could compare.

Cripps broke that record last night by 9 votes having run second in the MVP to Marcus Bontempelli and runner-up to Nick Daicos in the Coaches Award.

For the Brownlow the high-end projection on Cripps was 36 votes… he eclipsed that by 9. He polled 45 of a possible 69 votes and polled in 17 games of 23 games… and was best on ground in 12 of them.

Cripps polled in five Carlton losses including a trio of threes. He beat Marcus Bontempelli by 26 votes and Lachie Neale by 23.

It was a wonder to behold… if slightly vexing. The energy in the room built as you realised you were seeing something astonishing.

The sheer magnitude of the voting should be pause for recalibration.

This time last year we argued the umpires simply must be allowed to see the stats post game.

Currently we are asking them to sit the exam blindfolded and then ridiculing them when they get it wrong.

We have all the information but we won’t let the people who are tasked with casting judgement see it.

Had we given umpires access to the votes this season and this had been the result… you all would have concluded all they did was regurgitate the numbers and vote for the stars.

That’s where we are now anyway. It’s time to give the umpires the best chance to cast votes to protect the prestige of the Brownlow.