{"id":333949,"date":"2023-09-26T02:10:26","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T02:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=333949"},"modified":"2023-09-26T03:01:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T03:01:08","slug":"it-was-wild-sheepish-brownlow-winner-feels-for-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=333949","title":{"rendered":"'It was wild': Sheepish Brownlow winner 'feels for' Pie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brownlow Medal<\/a> winner Lachie Neale<\/a> says he feels for Magpies youngster Nick Daicos<\/a> after he was edged in the closing stages of the vote count.<\/p>\n

With 31 votes, Neale held off Daicos (28) and a fast-finishing Marcus Bontempelli<\/a> (29) to claim the AFL's highest individual honour<\/a> as this season's fairest and best player.<\/p>\n

Daicos was in control for the majority of the count after a mid-season streak saw the second-year player poll maximum votes in four consecutive games.<\/p>\n

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\"Lachie<\/p>\n

However, \ufeffa knee injury during Collingwood's round 21 loss to Hawthorn saw Daicos sidelined for the remainder of the regular season and unable to poll in the last three rounds.<\/p>\n

The final round began with Neale placed equal first with Daicos on 28 before Bontempelli leapt into first with three votes against the Cats.<\/p>\n

With the last vote card of the evening, Neale's best-on-ground performance against the Saints shot him to the top of the leaderboard and earned him a second "Charlie".<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of the Lions' opening training session on Tuesday, \ufeffNeale admitted that Daicos' injury derailed his Brownlow hopes.<\/p>\n

"I want to give a shoutout \ufeffto Nick Daicos," he told media.<\/p>\n

"He's had such an amazing season so far and \ufeffit hasn't finished for him yet either.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"If it wasn't for his injury I think the medal would have been his and he would have been a thoroughly deserving winner.<\/p>\n

"I feel for Nick, he's had so much pressure and intensity and scrutiny on him this year and the way that he's performed has been amazing to watch and I feel for him.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffHis injury probably cost him a Brownlow Medal but I'm sure he'll be in amongst it for the next 15 years."<\/p>\n

Neale also acknowledged Bontempelli's form this season.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffHe had an amazing year once again and he's such a great player to watch. He's one of my favourites to watch," he said.<\/p>\n

"I do feel a little bit for those two."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Owing to his unexpected win, Neale on Monday night said he was "rattled" \ufeffand eight hours later affirmed that his achievement still had not sunk in.<\/p>\n

\"Neale's<\/p>\n

"\ufeffIt was an interesting year. I feel like our team performed so evenly throughout the year, especially as midfielders and midfielders tend to pole most of the votes," he said.<\/p>\n

"As a group, we performed quite well and I didn't really know how it would play out. I thought I had my moments, I had some strong games where I thought I would pole and then there were a lot of games where they could have gone to anyone and luckily for me, it fell my way.<\/p>\n

"Throughout the night there were \ufeffsix or seven games where I could have polled one, two, three or none and I was lucky enough that I got enough to win the medal but it speaks volumes for our group.<\/p>\n

"I honestly didn't think I'd be in this position\ufeff. It was a crazy vote count, wasn't it? It was wild, so I'm just fortunate it fell my way in the end.<\/p>\n

The result and some of the vote cards have since drawn criticism<\/a>, with Neale saying he was "surprised" by some of the umpires' choices.<\/p>\n

"I think that's the beauty of the Brownlow though," he said.<\/p>\n

"There were probably games where I thought I would pole a bit later, like through the middle part of the season, where I didn't pick up votes or polled one and thought I might get two or three that game.<\/p>\n

"So, I think it comes around, \ufeffswings and roundabouts and I was lucky to pole [against the Giants in round six] but maybe unlucky in others so I don't really know.<\/p>\n

"You never know how the umpires are going to vote."<\/p>\n

Having won the 2020 Brownlow Medal with 31 votes from only 17 games during the COVID-impacted season, \ufeffNeale becomes the 16th player in VFL\/AFL history to take home "Charlie" twice.\ufeff<\/p>\n

While in the same class as Nat Fyfe, Gary Ablett Jr., \ufeffChris Judd and Adam Goodes to name a few, Neale refused the connection.<\/p>\n

"I don't think I'm in that company," he said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI'm very lucky and fortunate to have my name amongst them with this award but I don't see myself with those guys in terms of status of the game.<\/p>\n

"They're hall of famers \ufeffall of those guys and, yeah, I don't really see myself in amongst that echelon of players."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brownlow Medal winner Lachie Neale says he feels for Magpies youngster Nick Daicos after he was edged in the closing stages of the vote count. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":333951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=333949"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333958,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333949\/revisions\/333958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/333951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}