Is The Brownlow Medal Broken?

Written by Lachlan Sherriff

Matt Rowell took home the 2025 Brownlow Medal, but not without controversy. Photo: AFL

Let's face it. There's been a lot of raised eyebrows over a lot of the AFL awards this season.

Shaun Mannagh won the AFLCA best young player award despite being 28 years old. Mannagh is only a few weeks younger then Clayton Oliver, who won the award eight years ago in 2017.

Mannagh's Geelong teammate, Jeremy Cameron, was named as the All-Australian captain. A great player, no doubt, but even he was shocked at being named as captain.

"I don't think I've captained anything in my life!"

- Jeremy Cameron after being named captain of the 2025 All Australian team

Even on Brownlow night, we left feeling confused when the winners were named. Noah Anderson's goal against Collingwood was good, but many felt it simply wasn't as good as some of the goals he beat to win Goal of the Year. And Sam Darcy took home Mark of the Year for a mark that arguably shouldn't have been paid.

But none of this was as shocking as the actual Brownlow count.

Matt Rowell only had sixteen touches against Sydney in round seven, while also recording ten clangers and six frees against. But it was enough for the three votes on Brownlow night. Photo: AFL Photos

Early in the night, Gold Coast's very own Matt Rowell began polling early. By the end of round ten, he already had twenty votes - eleven more then the AFL's Brownlow predictor expected him to have.

Incredibly, Rowell managed to poll three different three-vote games in rounds he wasn't expected to poll even a singular vote.

These games were in round 4 against Adelaide, round 7 against Sydney, and round 9 against the Western Bulldogs. And in all three of these games, it's hard to work out why.

Gold Coast beat Adelaide by one point, but Rowell only had seventeen touches compared to Jordan Dawson's 31, while Adelaide's Riley Thilthorpe and Taylor Walker kicked five and four goals respectively. Obviously, you'd usually see the three votes go to the winning team, but this feels like one of the rare moments where you couldn't complain if it didn't.

Even if you wanted to give three votes to a Gold Coast player, then Daniel Rioli and Touk Miller both had more touches and better disposal efficiency then Rowell. Either way, seventeen touches and eight clangers is far from the greatest game.

Rowell polled another three votes from seemingly nowhere a few rounds later, when he was given the three votes for Gold Coast's round seven win against Sydney. This time, Rowell had sixteen touches, ten clangers, and gave six free kicks away. Yet he was given the three votes over teammate John Noble, who had thirty touches.

When round nine came around, and we once again heard "Gold Coast, M. Rowell, three votes", even Rowell himself couldn't believe what was going on. Rowell had twenty touches in this game, compared to Noah Anderson's 28. Rowell is usually a superb tackler - he had eight tackles against Adelaide and Sydney - but he only recorded two against the Bulldogs.

From round ten to round 24, Rowell only scored one vote higher then what he was expected to, but the damage was done. Rowell won the Brownlow Medal with 39 votes, the second most in history.

Matt Rowell was a surprise winner of the 2025 Brownlow Medal. Photo: AFL

Let's get one thing clear. This is not an attack on Matt Rowell. He's a champion of the game and one of the best players in the league.

At the same time, if you remove those questionable nine votes he polled against Adelaide, Sydney and the Bulldogs, we have a different winner.

But as strange as Rowell getting the three votes in those game was, it was far from the most shocking announcement of the night. That came during the St. Kilda vs Melbourne game, when Andrew Dillon uttered a phrase not even the most diehard Demons fan could've imagined.

"St. Kilda, N. Wanganeen-Milera, two votes. Melbourne, J. Viney, three votes."

If you've been living under a rock, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera was instrumental in St. Kilda recording the greatest ever three-quarter-time comeback, winning from 46 points down at the end of the third quarter. Wanganeen-Milera ended that game with 34 touches and four goals, including a goal with ten seconds left to tie the game and another after the siren to win it.

Yet, according to the field umpires, Jack Viney had a better game.

Don't get it twisted, Viney was good. 23 touches and a game high sixteen tackles. But to put it lightly, Wanganeen-Milera had one of the best games of footy we saw all season. To not award him the three votes was simply farcical.

In other words, the Brownlow Medal may be broken. So how do you fix it?

Nasiah Wanaganeen-Milera celebrates his winning goal against Melbourne, which was one of his four goals on the day, along with his 34 disposals. Incredibly, that wasn't enough for the three votes. Photo: James Wiltshire

We all love the AFL for its uniqueness, and the Brownlow Medal is no different. No other sport tasks the umpires with determining the best three players on the field after the game.

Of course, there is the argument to be made that umpires should probably just focus on umpiring instead of working out who the best player is, which is fair enough. When the people who get paid to bounce the ball in the midfield 20-30 times a game are tasked with picking the best player, it's no surprise they choose midfielders.

If we instead tasked goal umpires with this, Lance Franklin probably would've won ten Brownlows in his career.

What could happen, of course, is giving the umpires access to the stats post game. If you gave them both their own knowledge from being out on the field, as well as a stat sheet, and used both of those to determine who gets the three votes, there's a very good chance we see a different winner this year, and in many others.

But even if we did this, would it still be perfect? Of course not. Because it's impossible for a system to be fully perfect.

A different code of football, which many in this country would call soccer, had their Brownlow Medal equivalent, the Ballon d'Or, only a few hours after Matt Rowell finished his acceptance speech. PSG's Ousmane Dembélé took home the trophy in the men's category.

The people who reffed PSG's games over the 2024-25 campaign didn't go into the change rooms afterwards and decide whether Dembélé deserved one, two or three votes. Instead, 100 journalists from the top 100 FIFA-ranked countries rank their top five players from the past twelve months to determine a winner.

And yet, many people believed Barcelona's Lamine Yamal should have won over Dembélé. And you'd be hard pressed to find someone who genuienly believes that Dembélé's PSG teammate Vitinha, who finished third, had a better individual season then Liverpool's Mohamed Salah, who came in fourth place.

It's the same in every sport. Not many basketball fans would consider Steve Nash a better player then Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O'Neal, yet Nash won two MVP's, while Bryant and O'Neal only won one each. Tom Brady is pretty much the undisputed GOAT of the NFL, but he has less MVPs then Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers.

Ousmane Dembélé recently won the 2025 Men's Ballon d'Or, but like Matt Rowell winning the Brownlow Medal, not everyone agreed with the decision. Photo: Getty Images

The Brownlow Medal has been an award since 1924. We've had the 3-2-1 count since 1930. Something doesn't make it nearly 100 years by being bad.

Nonetheless, you can always progress things. Which is why it's probably time to give the umpires stat sheets.

But even if we do give the umpires access to stats, we're still going to get people who disagee with the winner. And that's perfectly fine. Because at the end of the day, you can't please everyone.

We have awards voted by umpires. We have awards voted by players and coaches and the media. We have fan voted awards. Why should we consider one of these awards way more prestigious then the others?

There's no perfect way to determine who the best player in footy is. If a midfielder has 35 touches in a game and his teammate who plays key forward kicked five goals, you'll find a lot of people who will think the midfielder had a better game. You'll find just as many who will think the key forward did.

A lot of people will think Nick Daicos was the best player this season. Some will say Bailey Smith, or Jordan Dawson, or Rowell's teammate Noah Anderson. All very valid claims. But Rowell sits at the same table as all of them, no doubt. It doesn't matter which one has a Brownlow.

The Brownlow Medal ceremony is one of the best nights in football. But it's not always going to go to the player you thought deserved it. And that's okay.

With that said, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera was still robbed of three votes against Melbourne.