The Herald Sun Footy PodcastPatrick Cripps didn’t just break the previous Brownlow record, he obliterated it. And even though Nick Daicos bettered it too, he was the length of the straight behind in second.
Was Cripps really that good in 2024? And all the leadup to the AFL grand final.
Forty five us Patrick Crips didn't just break the previous Brownlow record, he obliterated it and even though Nick Dakos betted it too, he was the length of the straight behind in second. Was Crips that good in twenty twenty four as a Brownlow jump to Shark. Hello and welcome to the Herald Sun Footy Podcast. I'm Andy Blaise and Glenn McFarlane will join me coming up to chat Monday night's stunning result. And you may have heard It's Grand Final Week where the artists formerly known as South Melbourne and Fitzroy will meet for the first time in the decider since the nineteenth century.
We'll have a look at all things GF. Here's mccas and here on the Herald Sun Footy Podcast.
Well, it is the morning after the night before a historic Brownlow medal. I'm Andy Blaise and I'm joined by Glenn McParland mcagaday.
Andy, how are you?
I'm going all right? It was quite a stunning and almost unbelievable thing that happened last night. Mac of forty votes to win the brown Low Medal, way way above anything we've ever seen before.
Forty five votes. I know, that's incredible, isn't it. That's two seasons of Browlau for a winner of recent times. Mind you, we have gravitated into the thirties, and there was always going to be a situation where we maybe hit forty but not forty five.
So I think they got the right winner.
Whether they got the right number of votes for the winner and the runner up, I'm not so sure, but certainly they got the right I'm comfortable with the winner. Just interesting to see what happens next, isn't it.
It's almost an old fashioned the way that it played out.
Other than the forty five votes, the fact that Patrick Cripps, you know, the Blues were there and there about, but they just snuck into the eight. They weren't the dominant one of the dominant teams. He was the dominant player. It was almost a Bobby Skilton career. The day win, the Swans would finish mid to low table, and he was the only you know, he was the dominant player in any game.
Well, you look at that, you look at forty five from Patrick Cripps, then you have to go down twenty nine votes to the next one, Sam wol sixteen, which is a creditable sixteen and then you go down to six Harry McKay amazing, and you think of the two all Australians at Carlton. You've got Patrick Cripps forty five, You've got Jacob Witering zero votes. So it is, you know, And I look back at a couple of counts in the nineteen thirties and they were winging at being a midfield as medal back then. So it is very much a midfield as metal and we understand that. I love the romance of the Umpires still doing it. I know there's some people who this morning are saying maybe that's not the.
Right way to go.
We've all got our different thoughts, but maybe they do need a little bit of help.
But I would be sticking with the Umpires.
My first thought was, jeez, as the Brownlow jumped the shark, you know, is this sort of a bit ridiculous. But no, I agree with you. It's always been the Umpires medal, So whether or not, I mean, it's up to the people and it's up to the league, and it's up to us as fans whether we take we see this as the glittering prize above all others. You know, we've got Coaches Award, we've got the Players Association awards, things like that. But I think we've decided and it'll never change it. The Brownlow is the one, I think. So Brownlow's voted on by the umpires. I think there's some changes that could be made.
What would we do?
So, I personally think the umpires should have access to the stats. Now, I'm sure it's their decision as much as anything else. I think they've been given the other opportunity. They prefer not to do that. Everyone else who votes on any award, whether it be the Coaches Association, whether it be you know Players who you know Players Award as well, whether it be our own Herald Sun Footy Award or whatever, we actually have access to the stats. So I would have absolutely no problem. It may not change the way the vote goes, because, as I said, I think the right winner one and I think the runner up was absolutely could.
Have been the winner as well.
Sure, but I just wonder whether they you know, that percentage of forty five and thirty eight votes might just come back a bit if you have a look at some of the stats.
Well.
I quite like the romance of no stats like that no stats.
I quite like the.
Idea of, you know, the umpires coming to the room after the game and then say, oh so who was who was best? But I actually think.
There's gonna be a way we have you got have you got a solution?
My solution is, I think all four umpires should before they come together, they give their three two one in isolation each of them, and then they take an average of the vote.
So that's like the norm Smith. So that's the way we do a normal Smith. There's four generally four or five. I think mostly there's five now norm Smith voters, and they collate.
They don't confer at all.
If they collate independently, and they bring together the actual and then there's a there's a judge at the top of it who can overrule it.
I'm sure there's a senior umpire of the of the four in any one game, who can, you know, give the deciding for a tie. But I think that gives you full coverage of the interesting So that means that you know, the center bounds umpire who's giving Patrick Cripps three votes. Well, maybe there's the umpire who's looking after the Blues back line in the second quarter, well, Jacob Wiedering played, well, I'm going to get votes.
Yeah, well, it is amazing when you think of the year that he had he didn't get a vote. So it is one of those ones. I don't think we'll see any imminent change. I really don't, because the AFL covert this award and it is an extra I mean, the history of this award is remarkable, as we know, you know, one hundred years now, it's one hundred years since Cargi Greave's got, you know, the first medal, and you go back only a few years ago, not that many years ago. I think the Dipper was seventeen votes, and I think Gavin Wanganeen might have been eighteen votes. Tore was eighteen votes, so we've now more than double that. So what it says to me in the umpires, under enormous pressure they always have been, is that they revert to the seemingly obvious in front of them more than they've ever done. And whether that's the right thing or the wrong thing, I'm not sure. But as I sort of said, I'm really comfortable with Patrick Crips. There were a few that I think, you know, always look at the brownlow my fascination of the Brownlow is you're looking to see who's going to win it next year, or who's going to win it. You look at the guy who's poled out of his skin, you know, and could be the one coming.
Through next year.
Is it a Matt Rowel, Is it a Caleb so Wrong? Is it a Zach Butters who's going to win one at some stage soon? But gee, Patrick Crips, you look at him now, he's at the top of his game. We talked about Lockie Neil winning three. Can Patrick Cripps win three?
Well?
I think he can.
He probably can.
I'm on forty five votes.
Absolutely absolutely well.
And then you look at the players who probably pold fewer votes. Then you know, for all the Patrick Crips who polled far more than anyone ever predicted, you've got a Marcus Bond and Pelly who, personally I still consider him the benchmark in the competition. I think he's the best player that we've seen over the last couple of years, and he's going to It looks to be the case that he might become one of those, you know, Lee Matthews, Wayne Kerry, Gary Ablett, the best players we've ever seen not winning.
A medal, and that happens.
We know that happens, and that's the situation with the Brown Levy from his own club, Scott Scott West came so close on so many occasions to winning this award, and personally I thought Bonk would win it last year.
Didn't lock in Neil one.
We know that, and I thought he'd polled really well this year and he did. Let's be honest, nineteen in you know, twenty thirty years ago would win you the medal, but it doesn't win your medal now. And I was surprised that he didn't get in the mid to late twenties at least, So I'd love to say that.
He's going to win one time.
It probably wasn't as good as his year this year, probably wasn't as good as his year last year, but it was a far off correct And I thought it was awesome to see Adam Trelaw get some you know, finally get some cutos and poll twenty six votes was outstanding and you could see he was a bit awkward there, ad sitting right near Bonk thinking I'm taking votes off you, but he absolutely deserved that. It was fantastic to see what he could do.
Going back to the fact that they're not using the stats this year, I wonder if you know, a bit of the older always said back in the day that Peter Hudson never won one because when he kicked eight goals instead of twelve, the umpires would judge him harshly because he didn't play as well. I wonder if a bit of that comes into it. It's like, oh, well, the bond wasn't quite as good as we expected him to be, so we give it to trelaor or you know, we mark.
Him down maybe, which is weird because you look at someone like Cripson Cripple was getting votes in games, you thought, yeah, maybe not. So it's to me, it's the romance of we don't know what the hell they're going to do.
Generally, they get the right winner generally.
So I'm not a person that would ever want to change it because I love the romance of it. I got to say, I've been watching him for decades and I still love Brownlow Metal Night. There's a bit of magic and a bit of romance about it. But it is going to be interesting. I don't think there will be any imminent change because even with the eligibility, and that would have been a bit would have become a really big issue if Isaac heen he hadn't have lost by seventeen. Can I say that again seventeen But there's no scope to change that. The AFL are really confident, they don't want to be doing anything like that. Likewise, I think that'll be the same with the umpires.
I agree.
I think the only thing the AFL probably might have pause this morning about is that it was decided so early in account. Channel seven may not have been particularly happy people. I wonder if they found people switching off once they you know, because Monday night to workdays Tuesday. You wonder if people are like, oh, crips, one bang off and missed the last couple of round. So yeah, I think they would have much preferred to come down to them and let's give them, give it to and we so decide, Hey, Macca, it's Grand Final week. There are two traditional teams, but for victorians interstate teams in the Grand Final, why don't we take a break, come back and have a bit of a look here on the Herald Sunfooty podcast, I'm Andy Belaiz. Glen MacFarlane is joining me Maca. The Lions and the Swans will face off in the Grand Final.
I'm actually really excited about it.
Yeah, I think it's fantastic.
I think they're two very, very worthy sides and we're going back, you know, something like one hundred and twenty five years since the Lines and Swans have played in the Grand Final together, ninety nine and amazing. I did a really good look back yesterday on that particular game.
I wasn't there. I didn't cover it.
It's not true, but at the Junction over, yeah, the Junction Oval, there was a there was a wrangling over of where it should be played, and there were threats of clubs not playing and then there was nearly a flood that day. South Melbourne didn't want to play at Fitzroy did. So there's a lot in that particular game. But I think these two teams, they've been you know, the fact that they've had Grand Final heartache over the last two years. You go back to I think sort of might have been like ninety five may have been the last time. I think, wasn't it that the two teams from the previous two Grand Finals we lost ninety three? Yeah, four in that particular game, and I think this has got, you know, the potential to be an outstanding Grand Final.
I think they're pretty evenly matched.
I don't know if you saw their game earlier in the year when they played not many weeks ago up at the GABA and Brisbane prevailed in that it was a classic game. And you know when you got a player like Isaac Heeney at the top of his game and we saw Cam Rainer who's got the potential to get to that level. I think it's a really exciting Grand Final. And the two coaches got a lot of time. For both of those coaches. I think Chris Fagan's just a remarkable story and John Longmire, this bloke we're doing. I'm doing a story with Ralphie for later in the week on the heartbreak kid who had a bit of heart black break as a player, and he's had a bit of heartbreaking Grand finals other than the twenty twelve, which was one of the great ones.
A long time ago.
Seems like a long time for lost, particularly he's lost game at three since Yeah, would you look at that? He It's got great narratives around all of this. You know, there's some really great stories around this, and I got to say, as a Victorian, I don't care that these two teams maybe based outside. There's a lot of I spoke to someone from the Brisbane lines this morning and they got ten thousand Melbourne members.
That's fantastic.
That's a lot more than Fitzroy finished with.
Absolutely, and the Swans have got a great base here as well, so plenty of great narratives.
I'm really looking forward to this game.
Yeah, me too. I think I think the Lions. I'd love to see the Lions win because I really like the way they play. I think Oscar MacKinnon he's a big I just think I think Heathbreaking he's a very he's a dominant ruck and he's a really important player for them.
I mean Darcy Fort, good luck to him. That's wonderful.
Thirty five games hasn't played since Anzac Day this year, when you think that long ago. But the good news for Brisbane is that they did play in the VFL for laid into the final series, so there's he's got enough around him. But gee, it's going to be a you know, Brodie Grundy, who I think he's part of the great storyline. I mean, he was. I remember the twenty and eighteen Grand Final. He could barely walk that night after the game. He was that soare came so close twenty eighteen to a premiership and then missed it by heading off to Well, he had to head off, Let's be honest, he had to head off to Melbourne and you know wasn't playing, and I think he was doing some sort of exam or a course on Grand Final day last year or as this time, he'll be there in the middle of the mcg and he might just hold the key to the game in his own hand.
He might have. You got a tip for us, Mackie got a NORMOUSI tip for us.
This is really hard. I've agonized and agonized, but I did tip Sydney at the start of mid midway through the season, and I tipp him at the start of the final series.
So I won't jump off now.
But I think Sydney by a point this will be a classic and Isaac Keeney. No one is playing as dynamic as Isaac Keeny at the moment, so I'd be taking the soft option. Sydney by a point, certainly by under a goal, and Isaac Keeny to win the medal.
I think I'm going to go the other way.
I think little lines by let's say eight points a little over a goal Joe Danaher.
Which I wouldn't that be a great story too. So all I'll say is I am really looking forward to this game. It's going to be an absolute.
Cracker, absolutely Macca. Thank you and thank you for all your time through the season.
Thanks Andy, Nowhayes.
I'll do us on today's Heralds on Footy podcast. I'm Andy Belaiz and my thanks to Glenn McFarlane for joining me today. Make sure you keep an eye out for our Moneyball on Wednesday morning, all the Grand Final lead up coverage through the week, live coverage of the Big One on Saturday, and of course robos can't mistackle on Sunday night. Have a great Grand Final week.
I'll catch you next time.
