Port Adelaide great and All-Australian selector Kane Cornes has labelled one aspect of the Brownlow Medal "unfair" as the voting system continues to come under scrutiny.
During the AFL's prestigious event on Monday night, social media went into meltdown over the awarding of votes in certain games, including winner Lachie Neale polling three votes for his round six match against GWS when he claimed 20 disposals.
Former Brisbane Lions and Port Adelaide player Tom Rockliff called the system "insane" when highlighting Neale's match and Jason Horne-Francis' three votes for his 13-disposal game against Geelong.
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Speaking on Nine's Footy Classified, media personality Craig Hutchinson said the "umpires not having the stats, is just so silly" while Cornes criticised the fact only midfielders consistently win the medal.
"The only unfair thing is … you're ineligible to win the game's best award if you don't play in the midfield, you can't win it. That's unfair," he said.
"So if we're happy with that and we're satisfied with that then let the umpires keep doing it, if not, and we want a Toby Greene or a Jeremy Cameron or a Charlie Curnow to have a shot at winning it then we've got to change the system because right now they are ineligible to win the game's best award."
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Essendon Bombers legend Matthew Lloyd agreed with Hutchinson's point about umpire voting and used his own experiences to explain why access to statistics should be part of the voting process.
"I know personally I coach a side every Saturday and I walk away as a coach and some days I've got no idea who played well and it's not until I watch the game back on a Monday and see the stats to complement what I've seen that I can put in votes," he said.
https://twitter.com/rockwiz38/status/1706275660606627935?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Neale's win also made him the fourth winner to miss out on selection in the All-Australian team, following Shane Woewodin (2000), Sam Mitchell (2012) and Matthew Priddis (2014).
As an All-Australian selector, Cornes defended his panel's decision to leave him out of the side.
"You pause and you look back and say, 'Did we miss something there' … (but) I thought there was midfielders that had better years than him in a really tough position to make it in the All-Australian team," he said.
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