Voss outlines his Norm Smith voting strategy

After what was one of the most contentious Norm Smith Medals ever awarded, Michael Voss has provided some intriguing insight.

Voss, who captained the Brisbane Lions to three premiership in the early 2000s, was one of the voters who awarded the medal to Fremantle's Shai Bolton.

Voss’ official tally votes were:

3: Shai Bolton
2: Caleb Serong
1: Will Ashcroft

The basis for this decision was a process driven approach wanting to remove the emotion and moment biases out of his vote.

“I think it was really important coming into the voting to come with a little bit of a process,” he said on AFL Trade Radio.

“My process at the end of every quarter, I just took a really simple 5,4,3,2,1 (vote) on every quarter.

“Rather than getting blinded by a result or the emotion of a result, I felt like if I had some evidence based in behind me, then if I needed to make any quick changes, I could make them on the fly.”

Brisbane won the game, but Voss prioritised Freo players as they were on top of the affair for extended periods.

“If you take a step back for a second, I think you’d have to say that Fremantle across the whole day just looked better, and they were beaten by a four-minute blitz,” Voss said.

“When you look at the way the game was played, the players that were dominating key periods of the game, for me it was Fremantle, and it was the Fremantle midfield.

“When you factor all that in, that’s what you are trying to weigh up on the fly.

“Certainly, when I was handing my votes in at the end of the game, the flyer was clearly Will Ashcroft.”

A large percentage of the disappointed fans at the result argued it was the two-time reigning Norm Smith Medal winner Will Ashcroft who deserved the honour once again.

But Voss’ process that was weighted towards the consistency of a four-quarter effort did not support that notion.

“He wasn’t in my voting at the very least … I hadn’t had him in the top five of any other quarter,” he said.

“For me it was just matter of processes, he deserved it, unbelievable four minutes, put the game on his boot as well as Logan Morris and also Lachie Neale … but I still landed where I landed.

“My battle was either a Bolton, who ended up winning it, a Serong or a Young had to come out of that three, so which one was it going to be?

“So, Young came out of that, and I put Will Ashcroft in as the one.

“So that’s how I ran it, I don’t know whether that’s right or wrong, I don’t think anyone has the perfect system to it.

“I felt that was the best way to do it and remove the emotion, remove outcome and come to the right result.”

Voss acknowledged the backlash towards the entire committee of voters but suggested that there wasn’t a definitive process to voting that was optimal, so he trusted his system.

“Probably the difference in Shai, when I looked at his game is that he voted in every quarter - he wasn’t the best in every quarter, but he voted in every quarter,” he concluded.

“So, his consistency… I had Shai at the top … I thought he was exceptional and I thought he was a real game-changer for Fremantle."

Bolton polled 10 votes after receiving three from Voss and Chris Judd, two from Shaun Burgoyne and one each from Andrew McLeod and Lauren Wood.

Lions pair Dayne Zorko and Will Ashcroft both polled six votes.