Despite being one of the last votes called out of the night, Jaeger O’Meara’s one vote in the Round 23 win over the Western Bulldogs would have meant a lot to the 23-year old. It was a 1,196-day period between the win over the Dogs and O’Meara’s last vote in the Gold Coast Suns’ victory over St Kilda in Round 9, 2014.
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The umpires’ votes confirmed that 2017 was Hawthorn ruckman Ben McEvoy’s best year of his career. The 28-year old polled five votes on Monday night, having a previous season-high of one vote (which he achieved in both 2011 and 2013)
Read: Brownlow wrap - all the votes
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Shaun Burgoyne’s five votes means the veteran has been awarded votes in 14 of his 16 seasons. The only seasons in which the 34-year old has failed to register a vote are 2011 and 2009, when he managed just nine games after suffering a three-month knee injury.
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Captain Jarryd Roughead’s best-on-ground votes for his five-goal performance against the Bulldogs in Round 23 were the tenth lot of maximum votes the skipper has collected in his career. Over those ten games, Roughy has averaged 4.7 goals per outing.
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Luke Hodge’s final season was the first of his 16-year career in which the former skipper did not receive any Brownlow votes.
Hodge’s career votes tally ends at 131, placing him fifth on the all-time vote-getters at Hawthorn. Ahead of him is Sam Mitchell (220), Leigh Matthews (202), Shane Crawford (159) and John Platten (143). The next most of any current Hawk is Jarryd Roughead, with 56 career votes.
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The Round 14 win over his old side became all the more sweeter for former Crow Ricky Henderson when he was awarded the three votes for his performance in the Hawks’ win. It was the second time in the 28-year old’s 108-game career that he has been awarded the full votes by the umpires, with the other game being his 32-disposal effort against Geelong in Round 17 2013.
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Six Hawks received best on ground honours throughout the count. They were lead by Mitchell, who had six three-vote games, while Jarryd Roughead was the other Hawk to have multiple maximum vote games, with two.
Tom Mitchell (Round 8 vs Brisbane, Round 9 vs Collingwood, Round 15 vs Collingwood, Round 16 vs GWS, Round 18 vs Fremantle, Round 22 vs Carlton)
Jarryd Roughead (Round 19 vs Sydney, Round 23 vs Western Bulldogs)
Ben McEvoy (Round 5 vs West Coast)
Shaun Burgoyne (Round 10 vs Sydney)
Ricky Henderson (Round 14 vs Adelaide)
Jack Gunston (Round 21 vs North Melbourne)
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Mitchell’s 2017 tally of 25 votes almost matched his previous career total votes of 26 across the previous five years of his career.
Read: What 25 votes could mean for Tom
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Mitchell polled three votes against Collingwood in both encounters the two sides had in 2017. Mitchell has now polled Brownlow votes in his past four meetings with the Magpies, with three of these games seeing the ball magnet be named best on ground by the umpires.
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Ryan Burton was rewarded for his break-out season with his first career Brownlow vote, receiving one vote for his 25-possession performance against the Brisbane Lions in Round 8. He was Hawthorn’s only first-time vote-getter on Monday night. The 20-year old was given another vote for his performance in Round 15 against Collingwood.
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Former Hawk Sam Mitchell’s final Brownlow vote of his career came with a single vote in Round 23 in the Eagles’ win over Adelaide. Interestingly, that vote saw Mitchell become the player with the most all-time one-vote games, drawing even with Gary Ablett, with 34 such games throughout his career. The four-time premiership Hawk rates fourth for number of maximum-vote games and sixth for two-vote games.
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Another former Hawk, Lance Franklin, achieved a Brownlow milestone of his own on Monday night, when he reached 150 career votes. Only 26 other players in the history of the game have matched this feat.
