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Series

AFL Brownlow Medal: Footy’s night of nights

Full coverage of the count for the AFL’s most prestigious individual award - the Brownlow Medal.

10 stories
Max Gawn and Christian Petracca show their disbelief that Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera missed getting the three votes.

The AFL has a credibility problem. The Brownlow Medal is a laughingstock

The umpires are doing the AFL more harm than good by voting on the Brownlow.

  • Michael Gleeson
Brownlow Medal contenders (left to right) Jordan Dawson, Bailey Smith, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and Nick Daicos.

Daicos, Smith, Dawson or a roughie? Your Brownlow mega-guide – and who the experts think will take home Charlie

We go round-by-round to examine the seasons of the top prospects and check in with our experts for their predictions.

  • The Age footy team
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Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera at the Brownlow on Monday night.
  • Opinion

The footy world is in uproar, but Nasiah’s Brownlow snub isn’t as bad as you think

The snubbing of St Kilda’s Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera for one of the individual games of the season will be seen as evidence of a broken Brownlow. It shouldn’t be.

  • Andrew Wu
Former AFL umpire Michael Pell has been charged after a sports integrity investigation into irregular betting on the 2021 and 2022 Brownlow Medal counts.

Four men charged after Brownlow Medal betting probe

The charges relate to betting on the 2021 and 2022 Brownlow count and have been laid on the eve of the league’s finals series.

  • Jon Pierik
Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson's friendship blossomed when they began high school at Carey together.

The Brownlow’s top two went to Carey. This is the key to the school’s footy success

Matt Rowell was a quiet leader who always had a football under his arm, according to past coaches and teachers, who spoke after Rowell’s Brownlow Medal win on Monday night.

  • Hannah Kennelly
Jordan Dawson has helped lead the Crows out of the darkness.

‘No ego about him’: The seaside kid and Brownlow fancy who led the Crows back to the top

Jordan Dawson wasn’t sure he was the right man to lead the Crows. Now he’s taken them to the top of the ladder.

  • Daniel Brettig
Nick Daicos and partner Arlette Amor were among the 1100 Brownlow attendees.

Broken toilets and power tables: The juiciest moments from last year’s Brownlow

Too much Brownlow is barely enough. As 1100 players, politicians, sponsors and Melbourne fashion elite crammed into Crown’s Palladium, CBD was in the thick of it.

  • Stephen Brook
Angus Brayshaw.
  • Analysis

Demons counting the cost of Brayshaw’s forced retirement

Not until they saw his name on the Brownlow Medal running sheet did the AFL hierarchy realise Angus Brayshaw would be breaking his self-imposed public silence.

  • Caroline Wilson
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‘They inspired me to chase my dream’: The players Cripps looked up to growing up

Carlton captain Patrick Cripps has won his second AFL Brownlow Medal, polling a record 45 votes to claim the honour convincingly. The 29-year-old is the first player to win two Brownlows playing for Carlton.

  • Jon Pierik, Melissa Singer, Roy Ward and Scott Spits
Marcus Bontempelli, Nick Daicos and Patrick Cripps at the 2024 Brownlow.
  • Analysis

Cripps dominates, but was his 2024 year the greatest season ever played?

From Patrick Cripps’ record vote haul, to the stars who missed out, to the umpires and even whether the count itself dragged on for too long, we take a look at the key issues from the AFL’s night of nights.

  • Jon Pierik

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This year’s laugh fest has kicked off, with more than 2000 performers stepping up to the mic. Here, our writers take a closer look

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Sam Mitchell flies the flag after Matthew Lloyd’s hit on Brad Sewell.

Hate of origin: Inside football’s most intense rivalry

Essendon and Hawthorn have hated each other for more than 40 years, from some old-fashioned thuggery and a fake drug scandal in the mid-80s to last year’s failed bid by the Hawks to poach the Bombers’ captain.

  • 5 stories